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The Premier League's head of VAR implementation has weighed into the debate surrounding the decision not to award a penalty during the 2-2 draw between Manchester City and Tottenham.

Spurs playmaker Erik Lamela tussled with City midfielder Rodri during the first half and was adjudged not to have fouled the Spanish midfielder, much to the bemusement of supporters.

The VAR debate was then ignited further in the dying minutes as Gabriel Jesus' last-minute winner was ruled out after it was ruled that Aymeric Laporte had handled the ball in the build-up and, although accidental, was an infringement according to the new IFAB rules.

Frustration around that decision has continued to rumble on but, as the verdict was factual, there is little room for complaint - although that is not the case for the penalty shout on Rodri.

MEN Sport spoke to the Premier League regarding the Rodri penalty claim, and this is what they said: "The VAR is constantly monitoring the match.

"VAR will be used only for 'clear and obvious errors' or 'serious missed incidents' in four match-changing situations: goals; penalty decisions; direct red-card incidents; and mistaken identity.

"But factual decisions such as offsides, and the issue of whether a player is inside or outside the penalty area, are not subject to the 'clear and obvious' test.

"If the VAR sees an error has been made in such a situation they will intervene, regardless of how marginal the decision is.

"There will be a high bar for the VARs to intervene on subjective decisions, to maintain the pace and intensity of matches."

Now,VAR chief Neil Swarbrick has has his say on the decision and explained why VAR did not intervene to award a penalty during the first half at the Etihad Stadium.

"It was looked at. The arm was around the top of the body fractionally. If you look at that in slow motion multiple times, it’s exaggerated. We look at it in real time, that’s how we referee games and that’s how we use VAR," he told BBC Radio 5Live.

“The arm was around the top of the body, yet Rodri fell forward. He didn’t fall backwards like he was pulled, he fell forward, so he felt contact, can he win the header? No he can’t, so he’s gone down looking for a penalty.

“That’s how the referee saw the incident and VAR looked at the replays and what Michael said was exactly that, so it’s check complete. It’s been left alone for the referee to decide.”

He offered a further explanation as to why the technology did not get involved and admitted that the Premier League's high threshold in this area could change in the future.

“Subjective ones are where we are having a high threshold. We don’t want VAR to be re-refereeing games, we want our referees to make a decision, explain why and whether in his opinion that decision is right or wrong, that’s irrelevant, it’s all about the referee refereeing the game and VAR will only step in if he’s made a clear and obvious error.

“At the moment we are setting a high bar. Will that change moving forward? Potentially. This will evolve, we’ve just started using it now, when you look at Rugby Union and Cricket, it’s taken six or seven years for them to get into a possible where people are comfortable with how they operate. I’m sure it will be the same with football as well.