Brighton 1-1 Southampton: Archer denied winner by VAR as Dibling stars

Southampton were controversially denied a winning goal by VAR as they drew 1-1 away to Brighton in the Premier League on Friday night.

Southampton’s Joe Lumley came in for Alex McCarthy, who dropped to the bench after a poor performance against Liverpool last week. First-choice goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale remains out with a broken finger.

Kaoru Mitoma was presented a fantastic opportunity to score when Yukinari Sugawara lost possession on the edge of his box.

The Japanese winger took on the shot early with Lumley out of position and hit the side netting.

Georginio Rutter struck the post with a wicked left-footed strike in the 16th minute.

Brighton took the lead in the 29th minute when Mitoma got on the end of Tariq Lamptey’s deadly cross at the back post.

Flynn Downes latched onto a loose ball in the box to smash home a Southampton equaliser just before the hour mark, netting his first Premier League goal.

Cameron Archer thought he gave the Saints a surprise lead in the 67th minute but Adam Armstrong was offside and deemed to have interfered with play from Ryan Fraser’s cross.

Young winger Tyler Dibling showed his incredible ability under pressure to break through the Brighton midfield before finding Fraser. What a talent.

Saints ‘keeper Ramsdale was not happy, posting on X at the time of the disallowed goal: ‘You can not be serious’.

The Premier League confirmed that it was Armstrong who was offside for Archer’s goal.

They posted on X: ‘The referee’s call of no goal was checked and confirmed by the VAR as Armstrong was in an offside position and deemed to be impacting Verbruggen’s ability to play the ball.’

Reaction coming soon…