Leeds United's 1-1 draw at Tottenham Hotspur saw plenty of late drama.
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Former Tottenham Hotspur defender Jamie O’Hara remains adamant a late penalty should have been awarded during Monday’s 1-1 draw with Leeds United.
Daniel Farke’s side fought back from a goal down to take a point from the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, with Dominic Calvert-Lewin cancelling out Mathys Tel’s opener from the penalty spot. That decision was only awarded after a VAR review, with referee Jarred Gillett initially missing a clear kick to the head of Ethan Ampadu.
A dramatic 13 minutes of added-time saw substitute Sean Longstaff come within inches of winning it, but for a world-class Antonin Kinsky save, before huge Tottenham calls for a penalty. James Maddison went down under a challenge from Lukas Nmecha with replays seeming to show the Leeds striker got the faintest of touches on the ball.
“It’s a penalty. I’m sorry, I don’t care what anyone says and you could show me a million angles of this,” A furious O’Hara told Sky Sports. “Where does the ball move? I don’t believe there is enough movement from the ball and the player.
“That’s a penalty. There is no movement, that ball does not move, Maddison gets his foot in the way and there’s a foul. That is a penalty and he bottled it, the ref.
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“We saw a crazy decision the other day at West Ham, which was a foul, but they took an age over that decision. They looked at it for over five minutes to make sure they got that right. Last night, they looked at it for 30 seconds and said ‘no carry on’.”
Premier League explain why Tottenham penalty wasn’t given
Tottenham’s players surrounded referee Gillett after he awarded a corner, implying he saw a touch on the ball from Nmecha. The role of VAR is to recommend a review of any clear and obvious errors, opting against doing so on Monday night.
In the aftermath of the incident, the Premier League Match Centre explained why the initial decision of non-penalty stuck. They wrote on X: “The referee’s call of no penalty to Tottenham Hotspur was checked and confirmed by VAR – with it deemed that Nmecha played the ball.”
But O’Hara remained unconvinced: “That is a penalty! I’m not convinced there’s a touch, I’m not convinced he gets the ball. This is a massive problem we have in the Premier League at the minute - referees are not giving decisions. They didn’t give the foul by Mathys Tel for the penalty, by the way.
“Referees don’t make decisions anymore, they’re relying on VAR to make decisions. But the problem is that VAR are only meant to step in if it’s a clear and obvious error. So if the referee gave it last night, is it being un-awarded? I don’t think it is.”