Postecoglou believes VAR is diminishing the authority of referees

Ange Postecoglou claimed VAR has diminished the authority of referees after he watched nine-man Tottenham lose 4-1 to Chelsea. 

A frenetic meeting saw five disallowed goals, two red cards, a penalty and two Spurs players forced off with injury as Blues boss Mauricio Pochettino marked his return to North London by ending the Premier League’s last unbeaten record. 

But the match was dominated by VAR's involvement with the red cards two of nine decisions referred for review. 

Postecoglou, 58, said: "It's hard to analyse from a football perspective. We're left with a result which is disappointing but I'm proud of the players' efforts and will and desire to get something from the game. 

"[Lengthy VAR pauses] are going to become the norm, I think it's where the game is heading. 

"I don't like it. I don't like the standing around, the whole theatre around waiting for decisions. But I know I'm in the wilderness on that. 

"In my 26 years, I was always prepared to accept the referee's decision, good, bad or otherwise, and I've had some shockers in my career. 

"I've had some go my way as well. I'll cop that because I just want the game to be played. But when we're complaining about decisions every week, this is what's going to happen. 

"People are going to forensically scrutinise everything to make sure they're comfortable it's right. And even at the end of that, we're still not happy. 

"It's just diminishing the authority of the referee. You can’t tell me referees are in control of games. They're not."

Even with nine men, Spurs took the game to Chelsea and were in the contest until Nicolas Jackson twice sprung their high line in stoppage time to complete an unlikely hat-trick. 

Postecoglou's team had dominated before Cristian Romero's red card in the 33rd minute, dismissed for a dangerous challenge on Enzo Fernandez and conceding the penalty from which Cole Palmer equalised Dejan Kulusevski’s deflected goal. 

Destiny Udogie followed in the second half, receiving a second yellow card for a foul on Raheem Sterling, but it took a further 20 minutes before Chelsea finally took the lead through Jackson. 

Spurs' night was compounded by the loss of James Maddison and Micky van de Ven to injury.