Crystal Palace ‘robbed’ vs Tottenham as Sarr’s face offside in wild VAR call | Football | Sport
Some Premier League fans felt Crystal Palace were ‘robbed’ against Tottenham after Ismaila Sarr saw a goal chalked off for the tightest of offsides. The linesman did not raise his flag before Sarr’s deflected effort looped up over Guglielmo Vicario and into the far corner. Yet after a VAR check, Sarr’s opener at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium was cancelled out and replays showed Sarr’s forehead was the only part of his body that had strayed beyond the last defender, Micky van de Ven.
The Premier League Match Centre wrote on X: “VAR checked the referee’s call of goal – and established that Sarr was in an offside position and recommended that the goal was disallowed.” But co-commentator and former Spurs goalkeeper Joe Hart said on TNT Sports: “None of it looks right. Is that what we’re going with? His face was offside?” While lead commentator Sam Matterface added: “Oliver Glasner is saying his nose is offside! Talk about by the finest of margins. Offside by a nose.” Hart then joked: “I know a few people who would have been given offside in that situation!”
Sarr did not celebrate after scoring, having seemingly been aware of how tight the call was. Yet just how tight the offside actually was sparked anger on social media, with neutrals claiming Palace were ‘robbed’ given only an inch of Sarr’s face was actually beyond Van de Ven.
In a chaotic first half, Spurs took the lead just moments later through Dominic Solanke. But Spurs shot themselves in the foot as Van de Ven was sent off for conceding a penalty with a pull of Sarr’s shirt five minutes after Solanke’s finish. The Senegalese winger stepped up to the spot to pull Palace level.
Things got even worse for Igor Tudor’s team, though. Jorgen Strand Larsen put Palace 2-1 up against the 10 men of Spurs just two minutes into first-half stoppage time. And before the interval, Sarr grabbed his second to effectively kill the game off.
Loud boos greeted the half-time whistle while some Spurs supporters were even filmed leaving the stadium at the break. With the north London outfit set to suffer a fifth successive Premier League defeat, just one point will separate them and West Ham in the relegation zone.
Former Spurs striker Peter Crouch reacted at half-time: “I’ve played at the old White Hart Lane before where you’ve been drawing a game at half-time and I’ve been booed off when we’ve not even been playing that badly. It feels like desperation now. They’ve seen it before and it’s almost like they’ve given up, which is worse.”
West Ham have picked up two wins and two draws in their last five, by contrast, to pile the pressure on Spurs. And Nottingham Forest also won a crucial late point away at Manchester City, managing a surprise 2-2 draw at the Etihad on Wednesday night. Their midweek results mean West Ham and Forest both sit on 28 points, while Spurs have just 29 points from 29 games.
