Arsenal’s match against Aston Villa faced a delay due to technical problems affecting communication between the referee and his team of officials.
The kick-off was postponed by five minutes after the players did not emerge from the tunnel on time.
The delay was caused by a technical issue with the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) system, which resulted in a complete communication breakdown between the referees and the VAR team.
The communication systems failed 15 minutes before kick-off and were only partially restored in time.
Commentary from TNT Sports revealed that while the fourth official, Darren England, and assistant referee Dan Cook could hear the main referee, Michael Oliver, the other two members of the officiating team could not.
After ten minutes of technical work, the communication issues were fully resolved, allowing the match to proceed.
Last season, Arsenal suffered defeats to Villa in both encounters.
The match at Villa Park ended with a 1-0 victory for Aston Villa, with John McGinn scoring the lone goal. Arsenal, however, started this season with a solid 2-0 win over Wolves, thanks to goals from Kai Havertz and Bukayo Saka.
In their previous fixture, Villa secured a 2-1 win against West Ham at the London Stadium, with Amadou Onana scoring on his debut and Jhon Duran netting the winner after Lucas Paqueta’s penalty.
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