Arsenal were spared a disastrous end to their match with West Ham after VAR deemed the Hammers to have committed a foul ahead of their late equaliser.
The Gunners’ 1-0 win at the London Stadium has moved them five points clear of second-placed Manchester City.
The Sun reports West Ham were desperately chasing a goal to keep their relegation survival hopes alive when David Raya flapped at a corner delivery.
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After some pinball in the box, the ball fell to Callum Wilson, who fired a volley into the goal.
But the visitors were adamant that Raya had been fouled when the original cross came in.
The hosts’ celebrations were cut short as VAR began a lengthy check on whether or not Pablo’s outstretched arm qualified as a foul.
VAR initially produced an angle from behind the box, where the contact was difficult to determine and left the commentary team on the fence.
But from a front angle, the forward clearly has his arm across the front of the goalkeeper, whose attempt to push the ball clear was impeded as he struggled to jump up.
Gary Neville especially was in no doubt as to whether the arm constituted a foul, and, once he saw the second angle, immediately agreed the goal should be ruled out.
“This is an earthquake, a tremor of a moment,” Manchester United great Gary Neville said on commentary for Sky Sports.
“It is probably the biggest moment in VAR history in the Premier League. This is massive,” he added.
They also looked at a clash between Declan Rice and Konstantinos Mavropanos, in which the Greek appeared to be held back in the box, but only after Raya’s clash.
There was briefly even the question about whether the ball had crossed the line.
Wilson’s emphatic volley flew past a sea of bodies in the box before striking Rice in the mouth of the goal.
It was initially unclear how close to the goal line the midfielder was, but a brief review showed that he was well over the line.
The remote crew eventually decided to send Chris Kavanagh to the pitch-side monitor.
And after another minute of review, the official had seen enough, announcing that Pablo had fouled Raya and that the goal would be ruled out.
All told, the review took two-and-a-half minutes, and the referee was shown 17 different replays of the incident.
The moment could be a title decider, with a draw meaning that Manchester City could have pulled alongside the Gunners in the league if they won their game in hand.
The decision has been widely viewed as the correct one.
Although former Manchester United stopper Peter Schmeichel thought otherwise.
Speaking during Viaplay’s post-match coverage, the Dane said: “What really makes me angry is that Arsenal would never be top of the league if that’s a free-kick.
“That’s how they’ve scored so many goals, by blocking people, holding people, doing all kinds of things.
“And then we get to this point, it takes VAR five minutes, Darren England the VAR, it takes five minutes.
“He starts it over again and starts it over again and again … that in itself puts so much doubt into that decision that it cannot be a free-kick.
“I think it’s so wrong. I just don’t understand why all of a sudden that’s a free-kick, because it’s not been for any teams all the way throughout the season.
“All this, it’s just crazy. And that decision today, it’s just so wrong on so many levels.”
Gunners boss Mikel Arteta was confident the goal would be ruled out before the officials chalked it off.
And he was quick to praise them for having the “courage” to make such a crucial call in both the relegation and title races.
He said: “Today I have to congratulate them [the officials].
“You need a lot of courage and bravery to stand out and give the opportunity to the referee to have a look at the action.
“When you see the picture, there is no question that it is a clear foul. They were very brave.
“The action deserved that. In my opinion, it is very clear. They are the rules and we ask for consistency.”
This article originally appeared in The Sun and was reproduced with permission.
