Webb backs VAR over Botman yellow for Jackson lunge
Howard Webb says VAR was right not to send off Newcastle defender Sven Botman for his lunge on Nicolas Jackson.
Webb, who fronts the Premier League's Match Officials Mic'd Up series reviewing big calls, called it a high-end reckless challenge. Reckless means a yellow card. Only serious foul play, where a player endangers an opponent, brings a red.
The incident came in the 18th minute of the Aston Villa game. Referee Jarred Gillett showed Botman a yellow on the field, and VAR Stuart Attwell checked whether it should become a red, according to BBC Sport.
The restart was held up while that check happened. Attwell decided not to intervene, and Webb has now backed that call.
His reasoning was narrow. There was no secondary scissor action, the leg-trap motion that often turns a foul into a red, and the contact was not with the studs. On that basis, VAR did not see a clear and obvious error.
Webb added a twist. Had Gillett shown a red on the field, that would have stood too. The call sat in the grey zone where the on-field decision survives either way.
Jackson saw it differently. He said after the game that he nearly broke his leg.
There is history here. The two have met before with roles reversed. Jackson, then a Chelsea striker, was sent off against Newcastle in May 2025 for a forceful elbow on Botman, an incident Webb also discussed on Match Officials Mic'd Up, according to Sky Sports.
What makes this stand out for fans is the wider pattern. VAR is getting involved far more this season.
After seven Premier League rounds there have been 21 VAR interventions, nine of them subjective calls on goals, red cards or penalties. At the same stage last season there had been three interventions, with zero subjective.
For supporters, this means more pauses and more overturned moments. The league's Key Match Incidents Panel, which audits decisions, judged one intervention this season was wrong, Manchester City's offside winning goal at Manchester United, plus one missed penalty for Arsenal at Aston Villa. Last season after seven rounds there had been four errors for missed interventions.
