Newcastle's Callum Wilson grabs point at Spurs amid more late VAR drama
A decent enough football match took place here but instead we are left, as is seemingly the lawmakers’ preference, to obsess over handball. This was perhaps the worst among a long list of maddening recent decisions brought about by a rule that goes against the sport’s very essence, given the way it transformed the outcome against all logic and fairness. Newcastle had barely laid a glove on Tottenham when they were presented with the chance to equalise deep into injury time; Callum Wilson duly took the penalty but it said everything that the visiting party made little effort to hide their embarrassment upon leaving.
Because football itself has to go on the backburner when we ought to be discussing a Tottenham performance of some promise, here is how the game turned. Spurs were ahead through Lucas Moura’s first-half goal when, as the minutes ticked down, a Newcastle free-kick was arrowed towards the substitute Andy Carroll. He won the header just inside the penalty area and planted it against the upper right arm of a helpless Eric Dier, who was less than a yard in front and facing away from the ball. Dier’s limb was angled slightly away from his body as the ball struck him just below the armpit line. Carroll appealed immediately, but he was alone in that and the referee, Peter Bankes, was unmoved; Spurs went straight down the other end and there appeared scant prospect of anything contentious.
Then the ball went out of play and, in a spirit-sapping three minutes of VAR assessment, the controversy was ratcheted up. VAR and the handball rule make toxic bedfellows; it was quickly evident from the super slow-mos that, by the letter of an absurd law, Dier would be penalised but then the focus was placed on Carroll.
His arm looked to be stretched ahead of the offside line, as did his head, but eventually he was ruled to have been level. In isolation any kind of marginal call that favours the forward should be celebrated but, given what had passed, this one compounded Spurs’ woes. Once Carroll’s onside status was confirmed, Bankes viewed the handball on his pitchside monitor and the play was called back from one box to the other.
Wilson kept his head admirably to drill in the equaliser but Spurs found it hard to master their own emotions. The final whistle blew within moments and their goalkeeping coach, Nuno Santos, was shown the red card for the ferocity of his remonstrations. Football matches can be negotiated in all manner of different ways but it must be sapping to put together a coherent, creative 90 minutes and see it rendered meaningless by means that would make pinball seem logical.
The obvious counterpoint is that Spurs should not have been in a position to feel such injustice. They had been superior from the first minute and could have been out of sight. So much of their work over the past year has been flat and reactive, their buildup laboured and passing slow. Here there was no such problem, particularly in an opening period where they positively flowed.
It took a stupendous performance from Karl Darlow, the Newcastle goalkeeper, to ensure we had a contest by half-time. Within three minutes he had clawed out a Giovani Lo Celso free-kick and recovered superbly to block Harry Kane’s follow-up. Shortly afterwards he was alert when Kane met a cross from Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and looked oddson to score. Darlow saved with his trailing left hand and, moments later, dived bravely at the feet of Davinson Sánchez.
Newcastle briefly found a foothold but then, seconds after Jonjo Shelvey had conceded possession with an over-elaborate through ball and drawn an expletive-filled rebuke from Steve
Bruce, they were opened up. Son Heung-min found Kane on the left of the box and, while the captain’s low centre was aimed into the right area, it did not look undefendable. But the ball ran to the far post where Matt Ritchie opted to let it run across him.
Perhaps Ritchie was aware a stray touch would bring an own goal, or maybe he just did not sense Moura’s presence; either way, he quickly realised his mistake as the forward jabbed a simple finish into the open goal.
It was Moura’s first Premier League goal since December. In the stands Gareth Bale applauded; presumably Dele Alli did somewhere, too, although he found himself in the cold again despite completing an hour against Shkendija on Thursday. Gedson Fernandes was preferred for a place on the bench when Moussa Sissoko withdrew in the warm-up; Alli’s status is an ongoing issue and no one can hide that, although he was not missed much on this occasion. Tottenham sensed blood after going ahead, Darlow again denying Kane before Son hit post and crossbar with two fine efforts from range. Dier fluffed a free header between all that, and Newcastle clung on.
Son departed with a hamstring injury at half-time and Tottenham’s fluidity dipped slightly. Darlow’s frequent saves became more comfortable, although he was smart to repel an inventive late free-kick from Erik Lamela. Next to nothing had happened in their own goalmouth until an unpalatable level of pedantry intervened and left everyone wondering how, and why, football has come to this.