Tottenham Hotspur striker Pape Matar Sarr fouls Moises Caicedo during the English Premier League football match on Thursday night. | AFP
Image: Afp
Tottenham Hotspur manager Ange Postecoglu claimed VAR was "killing the game" after the technology was used to rule out a potential equaliser in the side's English Premier League defeat to fellow Londoners Chelsea.
Spurs lost 1-0 against the Blues at Stamford Bridge in the league clash on Thursday night that took Enzo Maresca's side back up to fourth in the table.
The Spurs boss thought midfielder Pape Sarr had cancelled out Enzo Fernandez's header for Chelsea, only to see the blistering strike chalked off after VAR intervened. Sarr was deemed to have fouled Chelsea player Moises Caicedo in the build-up.
It took repeated replays to overrule referee Craig Pawson's decision to award the goal.
The length of time it took to reach the decision was only one of the things that irked the under-fire Spurs manager in his post-match rant.
"It's killing the game, mate," Postecoglu told Sky Sports in the post match interview. "You just don't know what you're going to get. You stand there for 12 minutes, but nobody cares (about) that. They like the drama and controversy."
The big Australian refused to commit on whether he thought the decision was wrong.
"How many minutes did it take this referee to decide if it was clear and obvious? Clear and obvious! If you have to watch something a few times, is that clear and obvious?," he asked.
Tottenham Hotspur manager Ange Postecoglou bemoaned the time-consuming VAR process that saw Pape Sarr's goal denied in their 1-0 defeat at Chelsea on Thursday.
Image: Glyn Kirk, AFP
Chelsea also had a second goal ruled out by VAR, but that call did not attract as much controversy on a night when Postecoglu was booed by his club's fans.
He appeared to cuff his hand to his ears in their direction after Sarr's long-range effort found the back of the net. He later denied doing that, however.
VAR was also criticised for a decision not to send Everton captain James Tarkowski off for his tackle on Liverpool midfielder Alexis MacAllister in Wednesday night's Merseyside derby at Anfield.
Tarkowski did get the ball, but caught MacAllister high on the leg in his follow through.
The Video Assistant Referee backed the on-pitch decision by referee Sam Barrott to show the player a yellow card.
However, the Premier League referees' body, PGMOL, acknowledged afterwards that the defender should have been shown red, as did a number of pundits.
Liverpool boss Arne Slot said he was happy to see the PGMOL admit the officials' 'mistake'.