5 of the most controversial VAR calls of 2020 so far | Premier League 2019-20

#3 Clear penalty decision takes forever – Tottenham Hotspur vs Manchester City, 2nd February 2020

VAR took nearly 4 minutes to award Sergio Aguero a penalty against Tottenham despite Aurier's blatant foul

Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City were dominating in their match against Tottenham Hotspur on February 2nd, but simply couldn’t find a way through to goal despite having plenty of chances. However, with about 10 minutes to go in the first half, it appeared that they’d been handed the perfect opportunity; a sloppy challenge by Serge Aurier saw Sergio Aguero crash to the ground inside the penalty area.

Referee Mike Dean initially waved off the penalty claims, feeling that Aurier had played the ball, but it seemed clear to even a blind man that the Ivorian had fouled Aguero and thus VAR would overrule the official. Somehow though, it took an incredible four minutes – with the game continuing on – for the system to come to the obvious conclusion and award the spot-kick.

In the end Ilkay Gundogan missed the penalty and Tottenham went onto record a surprising 2-0 win, but it’s hard to imagine what might’ve happened had either side scored while the VAR system was still working out whether or not to award the spot-kick. Quite why VAR took so long is anyone’s guess, but this was perhaps the most ridiculous amount of time taken to come to an obvious conclusion that we’ve seen all season.