Frank Lampard was fiercely critical of VAR after Giovani Lo Celso escaped a red card for a stamp on César Azpilicueta. The Chelsea manager, who could revel in a 2-1 home victory, felt that the challenge had put his player at risk of injury and he was astonished that after the match referee, Michael Oliver, took no action, the VAR, David Coote, did likewise.

It was reported by BT Sport that, after further reviews, Coote conceded he ought to have recommended a dismissal but that cut no ice with Lampard, who had watched the replays on a pitch‑side monitor. When Lo Celso was allowed to continue Lampard threw his hands into the air and made a stamping gesture, clearly indicating that he felt there was violence to the tackle.

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“Everybody knew they made a mistake,” Lampard said. “We have the monitor and can view it. I was just waiting for the red card to be shown – not with real pleasure – because it’s just a tackle that endangers the player. That’s what VAR was brought in for, to see things that the referee and the pitch-side [official] don’t see.

“It’s just not good enough. Saying afterwards that they made a mistake is not good enough because they had a couple of minutes to try to get it right. They probably needed one viewing of that one to get it right. It’s another huge question mark on VAR. This one doesn’t need [the referee to look at] a pitch-side monitor. It’s a clear decision, a human decision. So Stockley Park, red card.”

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José Mourinho merely sought to highlight the times when he felt VAR had hurt his team. “I hope the noise is the same noise as when the VAR kills us,” the Tottenham manager said. “As against Liverpool when [Andrew] Robertson should get a red card and didn’t; against Watford when [Étienne] Capoue should get a red card twice, with the same gentleman, Michael Oliver. I hope noise is the same noise.”

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Because the incident was seen by an official who chose not to take action, the FA confirmed that Lo Celso will escape retrospective punishment despite the VAR’s volte‑face.

The former Chelsea manager had said on Friday that he knew Lampard would play a formation with three centre-halves, raising a spying subplot. Lampard said he was serious about his belief that Mourinho had tapped into an old contact at the Chelsea training ground. “That’s the world we live in,” Lampard said. “I’m not being sinister about it. Whether someone has worked previously at the club, I think that that can happen. We’d been working on a back three for two or three days. I am not that trusting in all ways, in everybody, but that’s life.”

Mourinho appeared to backtrack when he said Lampard always went to three central defenders in times of bad results. “No one leaked me anything,” Mourinho said. “They are loyal to him.”