Bournemouth right to be furious at two VAR failures – Joelinton should have been sent off

Where the ball struck Dango Ouattara on the arm is a subjective call and David Coote should have been asked to consult the monitor

The disallowed goal is relatively simple to me. The line of the arm is identified by the underside of the armpit, and it therefore becomes a subjective call of where the ball has hit Dango Ouattara’s arm. That is a call for the referee to make, not the VAR.
From where I’m sitting that ball has hit the Bournemouth winger above that line on the shoulder and not on the arm, so it should not be a handball. Referee David Coote made the same decision when he saw the incident live, so why wasn’t he asked by the VAR to go to the monitor and make a call on his own decision? It was a subjective call to make and he should have been the man to do it, not the VAR. We have to ask who is really refereeing this match when the man in the middle is not the one making the subjective calls.
I can understand Bournemouth’s unhappiness because we’ve heard from PGMOL about how much more “referee’s call” will be relied upon this season, and yet we have an incident here that makes a mockery of that communication. This wasn’t the referee’s call, Coote wasn’t even asked to look at the incident? We know the law regarding handball is a definitive one, so it becomes a subjective call between was it his shoulder or was it his arm. When I look at it again, it’s very clear that it’s higher than the arm and should have remained a goal.
Bournemouth’s hearts have been broken by VAR ❌ pic.twitter.com/BcI2RuXMeG
Shortly after, Bournemouth were angered once again when Newcastle midfielder Joelinton aggressively pulled the home side’s goalkeeper Neto to the ground by grabbing his neck in an effort to stop a counter-attack.
Joelinton can consider himself extremely lucky not to have been shown a straight red card and facing a three-match ban. It was an act that endangered the safety of an opponent and in my eyes was dangerous enough to meet the threshold of a straight red. On this occasion, I believe Coote made the wrong decision by giving him only a booking and the VAR should have intervened to advise him to go to the monitor and take a second look. I cannot understand why both did not deem this to be an act of endangering an opponent, and the two incidents are very clear evidence that the VAR is still not being managed correctly.