Former Manchester City defender Nedum Onuoha was left perplexed as VAR appeared to miss Tottenham goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario handle the ball outside his box.
The incident occurred early in the second half as Tottenham looked to preserve a 2-1 lead over Brentford at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
But a moment of madness from Italian goalkeeper Vicario will have had Spurs fans’ hearts in their mouths.
The Italian gloveman contested for the ball with Brentford’s Mikkel Damsgaard on the edge of the 18-yard box.
However, Vicario appears to touch the ball not once, but twice with his hands outside of the box.
Tottenham goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario appears to handle the ball outside of his box
The Italian looked to have touched the ball with his hands outside the box a second time
Despite the seemingly overwhelming video evidence, neither Alex Chilowicz or Darren Cann, who were on VAR and assistant VAR duties respectively, picked up the indiscretion.
VAR’s lack of intervention left Onuoha baffled.
‘Earlier, Guglielmo Vicario comes out of his area and makes three attempts at touching the ball,’ Onuoha said on BBC’s Final Score.
‘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 VAR has missed that, very strange, because that is a big moment in the game.’
Onuoha wasn’t alone in his surprise at no action being taken against Vicario as several fans voiced their opinion on X.
One fan said: ‘How has Vicario got away with this…’.
Another posted: ‘How has neither the referee or VAR not seen this blatant handball by Vicario??? More awful officiating in the Premier League.’
The Italian conceded after just 23 seconds when Bryan Mbeumo scored for Brentford
But Vicario made several clutch saves for the remainder of the contest as Spurs won
A supporter added: ‘This is embarrassing. How did Vicario get away with this?
Even Brentford’s official account on X was stunned no officials picked up on it.
‘Huge appeals for a handball against Vicario’, Brentford’s mid-game update read.
‘He misjudges a cross and appears to handle it outside his area to prevent Damsgaard shooting but nothing is given!’, followed by an angry emoji.
In Tottenham’s post-match press conference, a reporter asked Postecoglou whether he saw Vicario’s supposed handball, and the Spurs boss responded: ‘I think I saw exactly what you saw’.
Brentford boss Thomas Frank took a diplomatic approach to the incident, but made clear it was a handball.
‘Not only looked, he had handled it outside the box, but that incident did not define the game,’ Frank said.
‘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 (referee) overall had a very good game. The way he handled soft fouls both ways was really good.
Postecoglou had a short response to the incident when asked about it in his press conference
‘I understand how it is. We can’t be too, I don’t like the word aggressive, but, in-their-face because it’s just our frustration. We can’t do anything about it. Hey, move on.’
Brentford were ultimately unable to find an equalising goal as James Maddison’s strike in the 85th minute put the result beyond doubt for Tottenham.
The result was much-needed for Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou after the team’s north London derby loss to Arsenal last Sunday and an unconvincing win over Coventry City in the third round of the Carabao Cup on Wednesday.
As for the Bees, the loss to Tottenham was their third from their last four league games albeit the other defeats came against Liverpool and Manchester City.
