'It's a foul' - TNT Sports pundits baffled as Brighton hit by two VAR shockers at Aston Villa

Unai Emery’s team went 1-0 up thanks to a fine goal from Ollie Watkins on 14 minutes. Full-back Matty Cash darted ahead of Brighton’s Kaoru Mitoma and his early ball was expertly finished by Watkins.

Watkins then made it two for Villa as Joel Veltman lost possession. The Villa striker cut inside and his effort squeezed beyond goalkeeper Jason Steele at the near post. But Steele appeared to have his vision impeded by Nicolo Zaniolo, who was standing directly in front of him in an offside position. VAR checked but ruled in favour of Aston Villa.

The third was also with controversy as Solly March was clearly fouled in the build-up. Lucas Digne, Watkins and Moussa Diaby combined before Diaby’s scuffed effort hit Pervis Estupinan and went beyond Steele.

It was a clear foul on March but the VAR believed the incident happened too far back in the build-up to intervene. Something TNT Sports pundits Joe Cole and Peter Crouch took issue with.

Cole said: "He knows what he is doing, it is a foul, he breaks up the play but Brighton do have chances to clear after that and they don’t defend it properly and it’s an awful own goal. It is a foul. It’s clearly a foul.”

Cole and Crouch also said that Zaniolo blocking Steele line of sight for the second goal made the difference.

"All you need is that split second. It was not the best of strikes [from Watkins] but Zaniolo is blocking Steele and sometimes that’s all you need.”