Ange Postecoglou said that VAR has made football less enjoyable after Mauricio Pochettino made an emotional return to Tottenham and led Chelsea to a chaotic 4-1 win over his old side.
Nicolas Jackson finished the hero with a hat-trick, including two goals in stoppage time. There were five disallowed goals on a wild night at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and the focus was on the officiating after Spurs, who missed the chance to return to the top of the league, ended the game with nine men.
Cristian Romero was sent off after a lengthy VAR check, which left Postecoglou bemoaning the way that technology is making the game too slow.
“I don’t like it,” the Spurs manager said. “It is the way the game is going. Some of it is self-inflicted because if we come out every week complaining about decisions that is what will happen, every decision gets forensically checked and we will be sitting around for a long time in every game trying to figure out what is going on.
“I don’t like it but I am probably in the wilderness with that because I keep getting told that’s where we want to go. I am too old school, I’ll respect the referee’s decision right or wrong. But it is the way the game is going.
“I will never talk to the referee about the rules of the game. I think it’s so hard for referees to officiate. Their authority is constantly getting diminished. I grew up afraid of referees. They were like policemen. I like the purity of the game.”
Postecoglou, who predicted that referees will end up wearing microphones and explaining their decisions during games, later saw Destiny Udogie sent off for two bookings.
