Tottenham Hotspur 1-2 Newcastle United: Joe Willock had a goal controversially ruled out for Newcastle at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Newcastle United were able to secure a 2-1 win away at Tottenham Hotspur on Tuesday night despite having a goal disallowed.
Joe Willock thought he’d opened the scoring when he latched onto Jacob Ramsey’s through ball and finished emphatically into the bottom right corner. It would have been the midfielder’s first Premier League goal in almost two years but VAR had other ideas as the strike was ruled out for offside against the Newcastle man.
Fortunately, Newcastle were able to take the lead minutes later with Willock’s cross finding Malick Thiaw who was able to find the net on the rebound after his initial header was saved.
Archie Gray equalised for Spurs in the second half before Ramsey put the visitors back in front with his first goal for the club.
Away from an important three points for Newcastle and another defeat for Spurs, a big talking point around the game was the decision to disallow Willock’s goal.
Joe Willock offside goal
Willock looked marginally onside on the initial replays though different angles made coming to a clear conclusion difficult. But a semi-automated offside technology graphic, which ultimately saw the decision overturned, showed a very small part of Willock’s head was in an offside position.
Yet many took issue with the graphic and scrutinised it along with the application of semi-automated offside technology which ruled out the goal.
Newcastle’s official X account added fuel to the social media fire by posting a screenshot of the offside graphic showing Willock’s forehead in an offside position.
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Premier League release Spurs v NUFC VAR statement
The controversial decision prompted the Premier League to release a small statement explaining the decision via its Match Centre account on X.
It read: “#TOTNEW – 45’ VAR OVERTURN. VAR checked the referee’s call of goal – and established that Willock was in an offside position and recommended that the goal was disallowed.”
While Newcastle head coach Eddie Howe has been critical of VAR in the past, he has seen some merit to its application in offside situations.
Howe said last year: “I've always said, and I can't contradict myself, the factual decisions, so the offsides, I can live with.
“If it’s offside, it's offside. There's nothing you can do about it.”
But perhaps the incident at Spurs has provided some food for thought in that respect.
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