This top of the table clash between two of the best performing teams in England ended up with Spurs being the victors in a 2-1 win. However, this result was to become shrouded in controversy as various off-field refereeing decisions overshadowed the game as a whole.
Various choices made by the matchday officials certainly rumbled premier league fans. Such as Curtis Jones’ contentious red card, and Diogo Jota’s very debatable first yellow card in which Destiny Udogie was seemingly fouled by a gust of wind. Which eventually led to Jota getting a second yellow card just a minute after his first, leaving Liverpool with just 9 men on the field.
The biggest source of controversy however was Luis Diaz’ disallowed goal due to offside. The audio of this decision from the VAR team of this game was released by the PGMOL, and the contents reveal that officials knew the goal was onside but mistakenly told Simon Hooper that the goal should be disallowed. After the game restarted the officials felt they had no choice but to carry on with the game, whilst fully aware of the wrongful decision.
This understandably caused outrage amongst Liverpool supporters who feel robbed of at least a point from this game, which could have massively helped in their pursuit for the premier league title this year. Although, the audio of the VAR team that was released to the public again raises the long-debated issue of whether VAR will work within the premier league. As many fans and pundits were quick to point out the seemingly unorganised nature of the audio, which begs the question of whether the people in charge are capable of making the right decisions.
