Tottenham Hotspur secured a priceless point against Liverpool to boost their Premier League survival hopes under Igor Tudor.
After losing their first four games under their interim boss, the North London outfit finally showed some resilience and grit at Anfield to stun the reigning champions in stoppage time.
When Dominik Szoboszlai opened the scoring with a sensational free-kick, it looked like another long night could be on the cards for Tottenham.
However, they continued to get better as the game went on and struck a telling blow late in the game through Richarlison, who scored his ninth Premier League goal of the season.
It was a fine night in Merseyside for Tottenham, but former PGMOL chief Keith Hackett feels the away side were on the wrong end of a VAR blunder involving the Brazilian striker.
Tottenham should have had a penalty
Richarlison was a thorn in the flesh of the Liverpool backline. Starting in attack alongside Dominic Solanke, the 28-year-old produced a fighting display and capped it off with a decisive contribution.
It’s safe to say he was in the thick of the action. After missing two glorious chances to score either side of halftime, Richarlison was also involved in a penalty incident with Virgil van Dijk in the second half.
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The Liverpool captain appeared to tug his shirt inside the box and with the goal gaping, Richarlison somehow managed to get a shot on target, which was turned away by Alisson Becker.
The Tottenham players and Tudor were convinced they should have had a penalty, but the referee didn’t award one, and VAR felt there wasn’t a clear and obvious error to overturn the original decision.
Hackett, however, feels Tottenham should have been awarded a penalty as he appeared to suggest that Van Dijk should have been sent off for Liverpool.
“He’s [Van Dijk] got away with one here. Is he holding the player? Yes. Has he impacted the player? Yes,” said Hackett in an exclusive with Football Insider.
“Therefore, it’s a penalty kick. In committing that offence, has he denied an obvious goalscoring opportunity? Yes. Why is everybody ignoring this? The video clips are clear, what is VAR doing? That’s my concern.
“The referee is in a good position, but he’s not got the viewing angle the VAR has. VAR has got cameras from behind the goal that can show very clearly that it is a holding offence. It’s been gone unrecognised and unpunished.”
Van Dijk may have got away with one
We’re not saying it was a stonewall penalty, but we’ve seen it given in the past. Van Dijk was grappling with Richarlison’s shirt, which meant the Brazilian couldn’t really free himself to get a clear effort on target.
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That said, maybe the Tottenham striker was too honest for his own good as he didn’t go down when there was contact. Instead, he tried to fight off contact from the Liverpool captain to get a shot off, which was easily parried by Alisson.
Tottenham are the only team in the Premier League yet to be awarded a penalty this season. And if decisions like this continue to go against them, that could well be the case for the rest of the 2025-26 campaign.
