Tottenham head coach Ange Postecoglou has called for an end to questioning officials’ decisions to prevent their authority being undermined.
Spurs had two players sent off after a 4-1 defeat – their first defeat of the Premier League season – at home to Chelsea but refused to criticize referee Michael Oliver.
However, after the first half, which had 12 minutes added on due to several VAR checks, the Australian felt a number of incidents had led to an overuse of technology.
And then nothing happened…
Ange Postecoglou suffers first Premier League defeat pic.twitter.com/Avo5OUyBcX
— Premier League (@premierleague) November 6, 2023
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta branded Newcastle’s winning goal against his side after three VAR checks a “disgrace” on Saturday, with the club releasing a statement calling for an “urgent change to refereeing standards”.
“Decisions are decisions: you either make them or you don’t,” Postecoglou told Sky Sports.
“Some of this is self-inflicted (but) if we’re going to go out and complain about bad decisions every week, what’s going to happen is what happened today: a forensic examination of every decision.
“I think that’s how the game develops. I don’t like this – I may be a lone voice as I am told this is the way forward. Because of the VAR intervention, it seemed to me that many were standing around doing nothing.
“At some point we will have to accept the referee’s decision. This constant erosion of the referees’ authority is what the game will get: they will have no authority, it will be diminished, and we will be controlled by someone miles away watching on a TV screen. “
Spurs took the lead thanks to Dejan Kulusevski’s deflected goal in the sixth minute, with Son Heung-min’s second goal ruled out for offside by VAR.
But when Christian Romero was sent off for a challenge on Enzo Fernandez which allowed Cole Palmer to equalize from the penalty spot, the game changed and Destiny Udogi’s reckless second yellow card early in the second half left the hosts in a tough fight.
They held on until the 75th minute when Nicholas Jackson scored the first goal of his hat-trick, adding two more in stoppage time.
“It’s quite difficult to process because it’s almost impossible to analyze the game,” Postecoglou added.
“You’re disappointed with the result but you’re proud of the players’ effort and that’s the positive we’ll take from this.”