{"id":954441,"date":"2026-05-12T08:47:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T08:47:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/954441\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T08:47:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T08:47:14","slug":"roberto-de-zerbi-gives-realest-take-on-arsenal-and-west-ham-var-controversy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/954441\/","title":{"rendered":"Roberto De Zerbi gives realest take on Arsenal and West Ham VAR controversy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tottenham manager Roberto De Zerbi has given his verdict on the VAR saga involving West Ham and Arsenal.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Hammers had a 95th-minute equaliser disallowed during their 1-0 defeat to Arsenal on Sunday after a foul on goalkeeper David Raya.<\/p>\n

Jean-Clair Todibo was seen pulling Raya’s shirt as he contested a corner, while striker Pablo dug his arm into Raya’s neck.<\/p>\n

There have been differing views over whether the decision was the correct one, though Danny Murphy, speaking on Match of the Day, claimed that there would not be a discussion on the incident had it not involved Arsenal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Read more: <\/strong>‘Just because it’s Arsenal…’ – Danny Murphy praised for best response to West Ham VAR controversy<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

West Ham<\/a> are reportedly set to launch a complaint with PGMOL, the Premier League<\/a>‘s refereeing body, over the decision.<\/p>\n

Former top-flight official Dermot Gallagher told Sky Sports that VAR made the ‘right decision<\/a>‘, explaining: “When you watch it, there is so much going on and so much to look at.<\/p>\n

“What happens is you have to go in chronological order … the first foul is definitely by Pablo.”<\/p>\n

De Zerbi on Arsenal and VAR<\/p>\n

Spurs<\/a> boss De Zerbi was asked about the incident after his side’s 1-1 draw against Leeds at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Monday night.<\/p>\n

Spurs would ultimately be on the receiving end of VAR<\/a> twice in the match, as Leeds<\/a> were awarded a penalty over Mathys Tel’s high boot before being denied a spot kick in injury time after a coming together between James Maddison and Lukas Nmecha.<\/p>\n

That meant the topic of VAR took on even more significance in De Zerbi’s post-match press conference, with the Italian referencing the incident involving Raya.<\/p>\n

“I think they [the officials] were not calm today,” he said. “Maybe they suffered the pressure of yesterday, the West Ham and Arsenal game, the VAR.<\/p>\n

“For sure, we suffered the pressure today, because of the speed of the ball, the order on the pitch. We didn’t play with passion with the ball. [We were] frenetic.<\/p>\n

“But also, the referee was not calm today. I don’t know, I can’t understand the polemic about yesterday’s VAR, because he [Raya] was fouled 200 per cent. Not 100 per cent. 200 per cent. If you want to speak about football.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tottenham manager Roberto De Zerbi has given his verdict on the VAR saga involving West Ham and Arsenal.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":954442,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4100],"tags":[161,94,20074,79,201,16,15,16263],"class_list":{"0":"post-954441","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-arsenal","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-roberto-de-zerbi","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-tottenham-hotspur","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-var"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116560740312417962","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/954441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=954441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/954441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/954442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=954441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=954441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=954441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}