Everton 1-1 Tottenham Hotspur: 5 Talking Points | Premier League 2019-20

#2 What was Martin Atkinson thinking with the VAR checks?

Some lengthy VAR checks meant there were 12 minutes of added time at the end of the game

After more VAR issues in a couple of yesterday’s Premier League games, the controversial side of the officiating tool once again raised its head at Goodison Park. The first half saw Heung-min Son go down under a clumsy challenge from Yerry Mina inside Everton’s box, but after numerous replays – and even two apparent checks – a penalty was not awarded by referee Martin Atkinson.

The baffling thing was that this challenge was probably more of a penalty than the one awarded to Watford in their game against Chelsea yesterday; wasn’t VAR supposed to level the playing field when it comes to things like this?

The second half saw even more controversy as Dele Alli apparently handled the ball during a challenge inside the box with Mina, but after another lengthy delay it was decided by VAR that Alli had been “under pressure” at the time of the challenge and thus a penalty to Everton was not awarded, either.

The biggest issue here isn’t so much with the non-penalty calls, but more with the time it took to come to those decisions. Add in a couple of frankly ridiculous VAR checks across the game for innocuous challenges, and the game ended up with 12 minutes of injury time rather than somewhere around 5.

The bottom line? Nobody seems to be happy with VAR right now and the entire system needs to be looked over by the power-brokers in the Premier League as it’s causing more confusion than anything else.