Tottenham Hotspur were the aggrieved party as VAR once again proved to be controversial by disallowing two goals.
Spurs had fought back to 1-1 at half-time at Southampton after Harry Kane’s penalty cancelled out James Ward-Prowse’s clinical cut shot, with defender Mohammed Salisu seeing a second yellow for a foul on Son Heung-min that resulted in the penalty.
However, the second half saw Spurs denied two goals with the first seeing Kane being deemed to be offside when he ran through and converted for the second time. Then Matt Doherty was punished for an apparent foul on Fraser Forster when the Southampton stopper dropped the ball upon collision with the former Wolves man which resulted in him fumbling the ball into the net.
Kane’s goal for starters is incredibly tight. The VAR offside lines attempt to showcase the margin between Kane and the last defender, but show a difference of mere millimetres with Kane’s shoulder or perhaps armpit being deemed to be offside.
See the VAR photo below.
Next up was Forster’s incident. Amazon referee pundit Mark Clattenburg was critical of the decision during in-game coverage and the decision by VAR certainly divided opinion elsewhere too.
On one hand. it can be argued that Forster only dropped the ball due to his collision with Doherty – thus justifying the ref’s decision. While on the other hand, the argument can be made that Doherty hasn’t done enough to impede the goalkeeper and thus the goal should have counted.
You can watch the full video of the incident below and make your own mind up.