Jose Mourinho criticised the decision not to send off Manchester City forward Raheem Sterling for his challenge on Dele Alli during Tottenham's 2-0 win over the Premier League champions on Sunday.
Sterling caught the Spurs midfielder on his right ankle and left him being treated by medical staff for extensive treatment. The former Liverpool star's tackle was checked by video assistant referee Kevin Friend but no further action was taken. Alli was later substituted in the second half.
Speaking after the game, Mourinho made his feelings on tackle abundantly clear, saying as quoted by MailOnline Sport: "When the VAR decides not to give a red card to Sterling it was thinking about the globality of the game. They decided to go against the rules of the game to favour the spectacle.
"For the majority of the game it was 11v11 but it should have been 11v10 since that very, very nasty tackle from Sterling on Dele Alli. City were very lucky. If Sterling had been out after a few minutes, there are more chances for us.
"I know that Mike Dean has a difficult job. He's on the pitch and it's 200 miles an hour. I wouldn't like to be a referee because it's so difficult."
Another contentious call came just before half time when the visitors were awarded a penalty for Serge Aurier's challenge on Sergio Aguero following consultation with VAR - the spot kick given roughly three minutes after the incident occured - only for Ilkay Gundogan to see his effort saved by Hugo Lloris.
There was another check when Sterling and Lloris collided as both looked to reach the loose ball after the Frenchman's save, but no foul was awarded.
Despite the decisions made by VAR, Spurs would eventually win the game 2-0 thanks to strikes from debutant Steven Bergwijn and Son Heung-min, and Mourinho would go on to praise Tottenham's new signing.
"It was a debut goal that was the icing on the cake of a very good performance," he said. "Independent of the goal I would say his performance was very solid, very mature. We worked hard in the week."
Source : 90min