Giovani Lo Celso Red Card Controversy: Premier League VAR decision shocks once again

Tanish Chachra | 22/02/2020
Giovani Lo Celso Red Card Controversy: Premier League VAR decision shocks once again

Giovani Lo Celso Red Card Controversy: Premier League VAR once again surrounds controversy after sparing Lo Celso for a red card.

There have been innumerable questions and criticisms against the VAR implementation in the Premier League, but tonight, during the Chelsea Vs Tottenham Hotspur, VAR surprised everyone.

In the 52n minute of the game, Giovani Lo Celso made a career-ending challenge on Cesar Azpilicueta, while being late on the ball. The Argentine international stamped on Azpilicuta’s leg, which made him cry in agony.

Even the ball was far away from Lo Celso’s boots, which should have been enough to find him guilty. The foul then went onto be checked by the VAR, and on the footage, it was clearly seen that Lo Celso made an off-time challenge.

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However, the officials didn’t overturn the decision and declared Lo Celso innocent of any foul play. The decision immediately triggered Frank Lampard, as he was continuously seen arguing to the 4th official, even 5 minutes after the game resumed Lampard wasn’t happy with it.

Even the fans on social media were not happy with the decision and spoke against the decision made by VAR. This is the second time in 2 game-weeks when VAR has gone against Chelsea.

https://twitter.com/LxtteryFT/status/1231213425981874177?s=20

Last time, it was against Manchester United when Harry Maguire kicked Michy Batshuayi, although, it can be argued that Maguire had no intention to hit his counterpart.

However, this incident was all clear and Lo Celso should have headed back to the dressing room. But in the end, he continued to be a part of the game.

Amidst the game, a statement was brought up by Jake Humphrey, who claimed that the officials have accepted the mistake made by VAR at the Stamford Bridge.

Meanwhile, Chelsea managed to dominate their city rivals Spurs, and won the game with the scoreline of 2-1, with the help of the goals by Oliver Giroud and Marcos Alonso but an own goal by Antonio Rudiger gave Spurs a consolation.

This was the first visit of Jose Mourinho to the Stamford Bridge, ever since he took up the role of manager at the North London club this season.

Post Edited By: Tanish Chachra
cesar azpilicueta Chelsea Giovani Lo Celso Tottenham Hotspur

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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