“This was shambolic” – Former Liverpool defender has his say on Tottenham incident

Tottenham Hotspur can count themselves lucky for scraping a draw against lowly Watford in North London yesterday afternoon.

Mauricio Pochettino’s side continued their poor start to the new season with the defensively fragile, uncreative trend showing no signs of going away following the international break.

Spurs looked on course for a 15th defeat in their last 30 games in all competitions until Dele Alli equalised in the 86th minute.

The midfielder’s goal came with some controversy after Kiko Femenia got in the way of goalkeeper Ben Foster, who fumbled the ball into the path of Dele who then brought the ball under control and found the back of the net in front of the south stand.

Former Liverpool defender Phil Thompson believes that the goal should have been ruled out for handball after claiming that the Spurs midfielder moved his arm towards the ball.

After a spell of confusion between referee Chris Kavanagh – and the VAR, the goal stood despite the giant screens in the stadium displaying the ‘no goal’ message.

Thompson told Sky Sports: “It was so confusing it was untrue. We’re all laughing but this is serious business. Dele Alli puts it into the net and straightaway you feel it’s going to go to VAR. You’re wondering if Dele Alli has pushed Femenia, but he hasn’t.

“When you see the real reason why, you see that Alli catches the ball at the top of his arm. I thought it wouldn’t be given as he moved his arm to the ball. We know that anything like that where it hits the arm it’s no goal. I’m waiting and thinking this has got to be disallowed.

“The I saw the referee has pointed to the centre-spot, while up on the big screen the VAR check says it’s ‘No Goal’. I was so confused. This was shambolic, and you can tell from Dele Alli’s demeanour that he thought this was going to be chalked off.

“How they haven’t come to the correct decision I do not know. This should’ve been about the incident and the goal should’ve been ruled out for handball. That should’ve been the end of it.”