We obviously don't care because it was against United, but I definitely felt that Villa's goal should have been disallowed for offside due to Watkins interfering with De Gea. It was a carbon copy of the one that was disallowed for Leicester, so they definitely got one of them wrong, so yet again great consistency from VAR.
Yer man Dale Johnson from ESPN explains this: it's not inconsistency from VAR at all, it's inconsistency from refs and linesmen on pitch, because these are "subjective" offsides.
VAR's job is get correct calls on things it considers "objective" like offside when a player is absolutely certainly active in the play, and to correct significant mistakes/missed calls/mistaken identity calls.
In the Barnes case, the linesman deemed him to be interfering with the keeper and flagged, a "subjective" offside (i.e. one where it could be argued that the player, while offside, is not active). VAR does not deem this to be a bad call, just a ref's judgement call.
In the Watkins case, neither the linesman nor the ref deemed him to be interfering with the keeper on pitch. Again, VAR does not deem this to be a bad call, just a ref's judgement call.
Hence, the inconsistency comes from on-pitch refs, and
this is the lighter touch VAR that they are using this season. More decisions in the hands of the ref on pitch, not re-reffing by television.
At least all that 🔼 🔼 🔼 up there is the supposed official interpretation.
My own opinion is that players whose job it is to obstruct the keeper at corners and who are in an offside position should always be called offside, and I do think Watkins should have been flagged on the pitch or called by the ref. The point of the sport isn't to wrestle the keeper out of the way while you're shooting.
On the other hand, Watkins is entirely
not offside until Hause heads it toward goal, and at the point of contact De Gea has a clear sightline to the ball and has shoved Watkins out of the way. It's a very grey area in the laws IMHO.
Ultimately: the less use of VAR the better. The idea that every goal results in people fake celebrating, then looking to the big screen to get the ultimate ruling on whether it stands is absolutely sickening.