Postecoglou blasts VAR after nine-man Tottenham beaten by Chelsea

Tottenham had Cristian Romero and Destiny Udogie sent off and were denied two goals by VAR in a remarkable Premier League clash. The dismissals of Romero, for a studs-up foul on Enzo Fernandez, and Udogie, who earned a second booking for chopping down Raheem Sterling, appeared correct on further review, as did Son Heung-min and Eric Dier's disallowed goals.

Nicolas Jackson scored three times in the closing stages to win the London derby for Chelsea after Cole Palmer's penalty cancelled out Dejan Kulusevski's early opener for Tottenham. But with Chelsea also having three goals chalked off by VAR, Postecoglou was left infuriated by the amount of time spent waiting for decisions to be made. "I felt like I was standing around waiting for things to happen with VAR intervention," he said.

"There will be a forensic study of every decision out there, I think that is the way the game is going and I don't like it. "If you look at all that standing around we did today, maybe people enjoy that sort of thing but I'd rather see us playing football." Tottenham's first league defeat since Postecoglou took charge in the close-season denied them the chance to regain top spot in the Premier League.

And Postecoglou claimed he would prefer the referee and his linesmen to have the final say on crucial decisions, rather than a VAR official who is not even based in the stadium. "You have to accept the referee's decision, that is how I grew up. This constant erosion of the referee's authority is where the game is going to get," the Australian said.

"They are not going to have any authority. We are going to be under the control of someone with a TV screen a few miles away. "I don't like it but I am probably in the wilderness with that because I keep getting told that's where we want to go. I am too old school. "It is almost impossible to analyse the game because it just seemed to get out of control for large parts of it."

 

November 6, 2023