Mikel Arteta has admitted his side were ultimately thankful for the long delay to Sunday’s match, as they needed VAR to overturn a late penalty.

Between 14:00 and 14:40 on Sunday, there were plenty of frustrations shared between Arsenal players, staff, and fans at a lengthy delay to their Premier League match against Leeds United.

Following a brief power cut before kick-off, the referee’s communications system went down, preventing the officials from checking in with the Video Assistant Referee and forcing a reboot of the entire system.

40 minutes later, the game was back underway, and VAR ended up playing a major role in the eventual result.

With Arsenal 1-0 up going into injury time, the referee awarded a penalty and a red card for what he believed was a kick from Gabriel Magalhaes on Patrick Bamford.

However, replays showed that Bamford fouled Gabriel first, and that the Leeds United man made the most of minimal contact from the Arsenal defender.

After a VAR review, the referee overturned the penalty and downgraded Gabriel’s red card to a yellow.

Speaking after the game, Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta was grateful for the assistance of the technology.

“I haven’t seen it (the penalty incident), but everybody’s saying – obviously it’s our staff and players – that it was clear, the decision,” Arteta said.

“Thank god we made the system work before the game, so that delay was worth it, because without VAR I don’t know what would have happened.”

It was certainly a big three points, with Manchester United drawing with Newcastle United, Manchester City losing to Liverpool, and United set to play Tottenham Hotspur in midweek. So it was important the officials got to the correct decision in the end.