Jeff Stelling was left unimpressed by the on-field and VAR calls that cost Brighton costly points in their race for Champions League football with Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday.
Cristian Stellini’s Tottenham, after their 1-1 draw at Everton on Monday night, opened the scoring after a stunning curling effort from Son Heung-min.
But that’s when the drama hit and big decisions during the game, from handballs to penalty shouts, started to hit the fan and Sky presenter Jeff Stelling thinks the officials and VAR got their calls ‘horribly, horribly wrong’.
There was even a claim that Howard Webb, who is the PGMOL’s chief refereeing officer, will call a ‘meeting pretty quickly’, as a result of what happened.
It could be argued that Kaoru Mitoma’s goal, for an alleged handball, should have stood, added to suggestions that he should have been given a penalty in the second half.
Plus, Danny Welbeck’s goal shouldn’t have been ruled out because it hit Alexis Mac Allister on the hip, not the arm.
That’s not even mentioning the penalty call on Lewis Dunk, all in all, it left Sky presenter Jeff Stelling unimpressed, as he told Sky Sports News (08/04/23).
“We talk about VAR, and people who love VAR say they get 95% of decisions right, well, of course, they do, because 95% of the decisions on bloomin’ obvious,” said Stelling.
“But so was that (Mitoma handball) and they have got it horribly, horribly wrong – VAR has done them no favours today and ruled out two of their goals.
On Mitoma penalty shout: “Howard Webb, Howard Webb, have a word because that is just crazy. We can see that his (Hojbjerg’s) foot has come down on top of Mitoma’s foot and he has gone down. This is a penalty every single day of the week, including Easter Saturday!
“I have a feeling that Howard Webb will be calling a meeting pretty quickly.”
THE BATTLE FOR CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
Whilst Brighton are angered by many of the calls against Tottenham, those on the other side will probably point to decisions that went against them this season.
Either way, this battle for the Champions League places and Europe as a whole isn’t anywhere near over.
From Newcastle United in third spot to Brentford in ninth, they are all involved in something, and it wouldn’t be a surprise if this goes to the final day of the season.
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