Tottenham Hotspur head coach Ange Postecoglou has insisted that he will always have respect for referees but reiterated his disdain for VAR after the Lilywhites' frenetic 4-1 loss to Chelsea on Monday.
Spurs went into their reunion with Mauricio Pochettino's team as the only unbeaten team left in the division after North London rivals Arsenal's loss to Newcastle United, and they were on course to maintain that unblemished sequence when Dejan Kulusevski's deflected strike opened the scoring inside 10 minutes.
However, unbridled mayhem soon ensued at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, as Destiny Udogie and Cristian Romero both escaped potential red cards before the latter was sent off soon after for a shocking tackle on Enzo Fernandez inside the area.
Despite the best efforts of Guglielmo Vicario and the woodwork, Cole Palmer just about managed to equalise from the spot for Chelsea, who also saw Reece James remain on the field after his elbow on Udogie was not deemed sending-off worthy.
Udogie himself then fell victim to Michael Oliver's red card, having scythed down Sterling while already on a yellow for his earlier controversial tackle, but Spurs and their striking high line held out admirably with two fewer players on the field.
Nicolas Jackson eventually found a way through, though, and as Postecoglou refused to compromise his principles, the Blues continued to make runs in behind the defence, and Jackson took home the match ball following two injury-time strikes.
Prior to Tottenham's game, Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta and Wolverhampton Wanderers head coach Gary O'Neil made no bones about their feelings towards debatable decisions that had gone against their team over the weekend, but Postecoglou - who was booked during the game - took a more level-headed view on the matter.
However, the Australian - who has long advocated against the use of VAR - believes that technology is diminishing the on-field referee's authority, telling reporters after the game: "I don't like it. I don't like the standing around. I don't like the whole theatre around waiting for decisions," as quoted by football.london.
"But I know that I'm in the wilderness with that. I'm on my own. In my 26 years I was always prepared to accept the referee's decisions, good, bad or otherwise, and I've had some shockers in my career let me tell you.
"When we're complaining about decisions every week this is what's going to happen. If people are going to forensically scrutinise everything to make sure that they're comfortable that it's right and even at the end of that we're still not happy.
"I just think it's just diminishing the authority of the referee. You can't tell me that referees are in control of the game because they're not. The control is outside of that but that's the way the game is going so you have to accept that and just try to deal with it.
"I understand goal-line technology because that's a simple one. That came in and no one's complained about it. But in searching for this utopia of no wrong decisions in a game, that doesn't exist. It never will but that's the road everyone wants to go down.
"Premier League managers should just manage their football clubs. I've never and I never will talk to a referee about the rules of the game. I was taught that you grow up and you respect the officials.
"You know what managers do? I tell you what managers do. We, me included, try to find ways to bend the rules and get around them. I think that it's so hard for a referee to officiate the game nowadays. I grew up afraid of referees. They'd be like policemen. Nowadays I guess we talk back to policemen as well."
A dreadful evening for Tottenham also saw Micky van de Ven and James Maddison depart the field with injuries, while Udogie and Romero are now set to serve domestic suspensions following their dismissals in the derby.
Udogie will miss Saturday lunchtime's clash with Wolverhampton Wanderers alongside Romero, who will also sit out meetings with Aston Villa and Manchester City on November 26 and December 3 respectively if his three-game suspension is upheld. body check tags ::
