JAMIE CARRAGHER slammed VAR after Bournemouth star Marco Senesi avoided an early red card against Liverpool.
The defender appeared to have deliberately handled, but the virtual assistants did not intervene.
The flashpoint occurred on 14 minutes as Mo Salah attempted to play new boy Hugo Ekitike in.
A poor touch by Senesi appeared to play Ekitike in on goal, albeit barely beyond the halfway line.
Looking to atone for his error, the defender reached his arm out and patted the ball away.
Senesi subsequently cleared, with an appealing Cody Gakpo handballing and Bournemouth being awarded a free-kick.
Reds boss Arne Slot was incensed by the incident, with Liverpool players also appealing.
But despite the protestations, VAR did not intervene.
Commentating on Sky Sports, Peter Drury said: "Check is complete from the VAR, the suggestion being that he had no control of the ball [and] it bounced up off his body onto his other arm."
On co-comms duty, Carragher replied: "That's handball. He knows exactly what he's doing, it's his reaction as a defender, but that was handball."
Carra, 47, then added: "The information the referee got there was not correct."
Confirming the decision, the Premier League Match Centre suggested that the no-call was in fact due to how far out the incident occurred.
A Prem post on X read: "The referee’s call of no red card to Senesi was checked and confirmed by VAR – with the action deemed not to be a clear handball offence nor denial of a goal scoring opportunity (DOGSO), due to the distance from goal."
Ekitike, 23, went on to fire Liverpool into the lead on 37 minutes... with Senesi at fault.
The French striker easily beat his marker before calmly slotting past Djordje Petrovic to score his first Premier League goal.