Quique Sánchez Flores branded VAR “weird” and questioned its objectivity after two controversial moments helped deny his Watford team their first league win of the season at Spurs.

Dele Alli’s late equaliser, which cancelled out an early strike from Abdoulaye Doucouré, was eventually given even though the stadium screens said it had been ruled out, while at the end of the first half VAR failed to intervene in what looked like a clear penalty for the visitors after Gerard Deulofeu was stopped by Jan Vertonghen.

“In my opinion there was a foul by [Harry] Kane on [Christian] Kabasele in the buildup [to Alli’s goal],” the Watford manager said. “It was very weird. I thought VAR was supposed to be helping football but if we are talking just about this part of the game it was very weird.”

The delay in approving Alli’s late goal was only confounded by the wrong message being broadcast to the crowd. But in the buildup Kane looked to have climbed on Kabasele to challenge for the ball, and when it dropped to Alli he controlled it with his shoulder, or perhaps the top of his arm.

As for the penalty shout, meanwhile, Vertonghen appeared to make no contact at all with the ball and lots with the legs of Deulofeu as he adjusted a mistimed tackle to try and stop the Watford forward in the 38th minute.

“You probably saw [the penalty incident] more times than me, but I saw it many times and in my opinion it’s very clear, it’s a penalty,” Sánchez Flores said. “If you can stop the imagination it’s very clear to see.

“I have no idea what they reviewed, I don’t know how they work. I thought that VAR was something objective but I’m starting to think it’s something very subjective again.”

Asked if he understood why Kavanagh had been given different instructions on the goal to that broadcast to the stadium, Sánchez Flores said: “ It’s very difficult to know what happened in secret.”

Mauricio Pochettino said he had sympathy for Watford in the way the equaliser was announced but blamed the Premier League for the “Decision: No Goal” sign being flashed to the 58,000 crowd at the new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

“We don’t manage that situation,” Pochettino said. “I understand that there was confusion and it was tough for Quique and for Watford but it’s not our responsibility. It’s the Premier League’s. Maybe the guy who pressed the button made a mistake but the most important thing is when you check the goal it’s a goal. It hit [Alli’s] shoulder and I think it was legal. I can understand for Watford, they must feel so, so bad.”