At home, Tottenham took a 1-0 lead against Leeds thanks to Mathys Tel's goal in the 50th minute. But in the 74th minute, Tel himself caused the team to be penalized. Main referee Gillett decided to use VAR to see if Tel's bicycle kick was a foul or not. Initially, the referee did not award a penalty.
After a careful check on the field, referee Gillett reversed the initial decision and awarded Leeds a penalty. From the 11m spot, Calvert Lewin equalized 1-1.
After that, Tottenham also had a penalty attempt in the 90+13 minute when James Maddison fell in the penalty area due to a collision with Lukas Nmecha, but VAR checked and confirmed no penalty, upholding referee Gillett's decision on the field.
The controversy surrounding refereeing took place just over 24 hours after West Ham was denied a late equalizing goal against Arsenal due to striker Pablo's foul on David Raya in the penalty area.
When asked about the referees' decisions in the match, Tottenham coach De Zerbi said: "I think they were not calm today, maybe they were under pressure from yesterday's match against Arsenal.
Surely today we have been under pressure. We did not play football with enthusiasm, too hastily, and the referee was also not calm in today's match.
I don't know. I don't understand why there were complaints about VAR yesterday because David Raya was fouled 200%, not 100%”.
The 1-1 draw with Leeds United made Tottenham miss the opportunity to break away from the bottom group. Currently, they are ranked 17th, only 2 points ahead of West Ham and the risk of relegation is still there. In addition to complaining about the referee, De Zerbi welcomed the return of midfielder James Maddison after he suffered a long-term injury.
He said: "This is great news for us. He is a different player, both in terms of qualities and people, and I hope he will play an important role for us. Yesterday, I talked to him about his fitness, about the number of minutes he can play. He played more than he said yesterday.
In the penultimate round of the season, Tottenham will be guests at Chelsea's stadium, while West Ham will face Newcastle also on a guest field.
