Tottenham Hotspur manager Roberto De Zerbi has insisted that the decision to disallow West Ham United’s goal against Arsenal was ‘200%’ correct.
It’s not often that a Tottenham Hotspur manager will defend a decision that favours rivals Arsenal, but that’s exactly what Roberto De Zerbi did on Monday night.
De Zerbi had just seen his team scrape a draw at home to Leeds United, and he suggested that both the referee and his team had felt the pressure of the previous day’s game between West Ham and Arsenal.
Yet the manager added that he can’t understand why there was so much focus on the officiating in the Arsenal match, insisting the foul on David Raya was clear.
“I think [the referees] were not calm today,” De Zerbi said. “Maybe they suffer the pressure of yesterday, West Ham-Arsenal game. The VAR.
“For sure, we suffer the pressure today. But also, the referee was not calm today.
“I can’t understand the polemic about yesterday’s VAR [decision] because it was a foul, 200%. Not 100%, 200%, if you want to speak about football.”
It’s fair to point out that Spurs had a vested interest in the West Ham goal being disallowed, given the Hammers are their direct rivals in the current relegation scrap.
For once, it was probably a good thing for Spurs to see Arsenal winning a game, meaning De Zerbi wasn’t an entirely neutral party in this case.
But there was no necessity to defend the decision after the fact, with West Ham’s points already dropped. No one was going to give the Hammers their disallowed goal back if De Zerbi said VAR made a mistake. So De Zerbi’s comments are likely his genuine opinion on the incident.
Regardless of the reasons why, Spurs certainly saw an opportunity go begging against Leeds on Monday. A win would have put them on the verge of safety, but they now need four points or more from their final two games to guarantee their top-flight status.
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