Why VAR gets involved in some penalties but not others

VAR

It was a weekend of video assistant referee penalty decisions in the Premier League, with spot-kicks awarded, cancelled and ignored.

VAR is always going to face accusations of being inconsistent, because its role is not to create consistency of decision-making but judge individual incidents based upon the on-field call.

So it can be helpful to understand what VAR is looking for and why similar situations can have opposing outcomes.

From the penalty awarded to Manchester City against Liverpool, to Dan Burn's challenges on Dango Ouattara and Brighton's overturned spot-kick at Crystal Palace, we saw a whole range.

What do these incidents tell us about how VAR operates in the Premier League?

 From this perspective Jeremy Doku skipped into the penalty area in the ninth minute and stumbled as he looked to move the ball past Liverpool goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili.

Referee Chris Kavanagh waved for play to continue, but was sent to the monitor for a penalty review by VAR Michael Oliver. It was awarded, with Mamardashvili making a save from Erling Haaland.

When sliding, Mamardashvili only made a small amount of contact on Doku. We are often told this is not enough for a VAR penalty, so why was this any different from what we have seen before?

One of the key considerations for VAR is how the attacker goes to ground, which the Premier League refers to as "contact with consequence". Does the contact from the challenge fit the way a player has gone down or has it been embellished?

That Doku attempted to stay on his feet, and was trying to balance to shoot rather than look for a penalty, gives an indication to the VAR that the contact had a natural impact on the forward's ability to continue with the ball.

But for supporters, you can see why it appears to be a soft award.