Former PL referee has his say on VAR decision during Tottenham’s defeat to Chelsea

Former Premier League referee Chris Foy has admitted that VAR messed up by failing to give Giovani Lo Celso his marching orders for his tackle on Ceasar Azpilicueta during Tottenham’s 2-1 defeat to Chelsea on Saturday.

The midfielder appeared to stamp down on the Chelsea defender’s foot as he came in to win the ball and, while the incident looked innocuous when it happened, slow-motion replays showed that the challenge from the Spurs star was rather nasty.

However, VAR ruled that Michael Oliver hadn’t made a clear and obvious error by failing to send Lo Celso off and the 22-year-old thus remained on the pitch.

As it happened, the decision didn’t affect the result as the away side couldn’t get themselves back into the game, but Foy insists that the VAR in charge for the game, David Coote, made a serious error by failing to intervene.

Foy suggested that Coote should have asked the referee to take another look at the challenge on the pitch-side monitor if he felt Lo Celso had nowhere else to put his foot.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, Foy said: “It was a clear red, it’s as simple as that. I can only assume that David thought Lo Celso had no other place to put his foot.

“In that case, he would not have advised Michael Oliver to go to the screen because it was not an act of serious foul play. That was a misjudgement by David Coote.

“The referee can still go to the screen but remember that he hadn’t even given a foul, he’d given a throw-in.

“So, when David Coote tells him it’s not serious foul play, Michael wouldn’t have felt compelled to take another look. In hindsight, he should have gone to have a look. Basically, it’s human error. It was a clear red.”

Spurs Web Opinion

Lo Celso certainly seems to have got away with one here. I was convinced that he would be sent off and couldn’t quite believe it when VAR decided not to intervene. We can certainly count our lucky stars as we couldn’t have afforded to be without another key player for a few games given the injury situation we currently find ourselves in.

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