VAR steals Spurs’ goal in dramatic North London Derby
Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal played one of the most exciting derby games in recent times as the Reds from North London cliched three points at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium earlier today, however, with some controversy.
The game was poised to be a big one as the visitors yearned for a win to ensure they stayed in the race for the Premier League title while the hosts were looking to secure their potency in their fight with Unai Emery’s Aston Villa for a traditional top-four finish. Looking back, it did live up to its headline potential.
Mikel Arteta’s side scored their first goal with a beautifully taken corner from Bukayo Saka, as Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg’s glance took it behind Guglielmo Vicario’s goal. That came only in the first quarter of the game, which took away the venom with which the Lilywhites started.
Ian Wright fumes as Tottenham left fuming by offside call
Despite surrendering an early lead, Ange Postecoglou’s side did not give up and played on the front foot for the crucial equalizer. It did not take long before the hosts were rewarded with the ball behind the net when Micky van de Ven seized on a loose ball and shot his team level, much to the joy of Tottenham’s fans.
Nevertheless, the joy didn’t last for long as the home team feared that the worst was yet to come when VAR intervened and investigated for a possible offside, which was confirmed by the narrowest of margins.
The argument then turned to whether Arsenal defender Takehiro Tomiyasu actively chose to block the ball when the ball was shot at him, with a few arguing that the Japan international did it by mistake rather than on purpose. Even though he comes at this with his Arsenal background, Gunners former striker Ian Wright was left seething with the call because he believes van de Ven’s goal should have stood.
Ian, along with former Tottenham manager Tim Sherwood, argued on Premier League Productions:
“The shot comes in, and it’s a deliberate attempt to block the shot, and it falls to Micky van de Ven off Gabriel’s head,” initiated Sherwood.
“The second one isn’t deliberate, obviously. But here, if you see Tomiyasu, that’s a deliberate attempt to play the ball; it bounces off his knees into Gabriel’s back, and then Micky van de Ven finishes it off. I just can’t understand why that is ruled out. He should be onside.”
Ian Wright added, “It’s almost gone to a crazy place now, in my opinion. The deflection is a deflection. I don’t know how I am going to get into complaining about that now because I am done with it. I am done with that!”
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It is crazy for such decisions to still be seen at this level of football. Anyway, it’s about looking forward now and ground from here for Tottenham Hotspur.
