Former Manchester City defender Nedum Onuoha believes is it 'strange' that VAR did not intervene when Spurs goalkeeper Gugliemo Vicario handled the ball outside of his area.
The Lilywhites' game against Brentford was the latest to garner VAR controversy as Spurs prevailed 3-1 over their London rivals. Bryan Mbuemo had put the Bees up within a minute of the game starting but Ange Postecoglou's side were able to come from behind thanks to Dominic Solanke, Brennan Johnson and James Maddison.
With the scoreline still 2-1, and under pressure from Mikkel Damsgaard, Vicario attempted to gather the ball before appearing to jab it away while outside of his box. Referee Jonathan Brooks did not blow his whistle and VAR did not act as Kristoffer Ajer and Thomas Frank were booked for their complaints.
The technology was deemed unable to be utilised as the offence was not deemed to deny a goalscoring opportunity. Onuoha nevetheless believes it would have represented a big moment in the game, with Vicario possibly being handed his marching orders.
"Earlier Gugliemo Vicario comes out of his area and makes three attempts at touching the ball," Onuoha said.
"From the angle we see the third touch, if there was another angle of it, I think they would say that it came outside the box, so that would be a red card. It is strange that the VAR has missed that, very strange, because that is a big moment in the game."
Brentford boss Frank was under no illusion the Spurs goalkeeper had touched the ball outside of his area. The 50-year-old coach did not believe it was a moment that decided the game however. and even complimented the referee.
“Not only looked. He had handled it outside the box," he said.
“That incident did not define the game. When we come here, we need to play 90 good minutes. We played 60. The margins need to go our way, and there were a few deflections and balls drop that didn’t add up to our possibility of winning the game.
“It was a mistake. It could have been a free-kick to us. It could have helped us. But, hey, you never know. I think the probability of scoring from a direct free-kick is like 0.0543. So probably not the biggest probability for scoring anyway.
“And I think John Brooks overall had a very good game. The way he handled soft fouls both ways was really good.”