Former Premier League official Dermot Gallagher has weighed in on three major refereeing calls from Tottenham\u2019s clash with Manchester City.<\/p>\n
At half-time, Spurs appeared out of the contest, trailing 2\u20130 as City dominated the opening period and Tottenham struggled to make any real impact. But the hosts showed real character after the break, mounting an impressive comeback to level the score thanks to two goals from Dominic Solanke.<\/p>\n
The turnaround was made even more impressive by Tottenham\u2019s lengthy injury list, with Thomas Frank quick to praise Solanke\u2019s influence on the game.<\/p>\n
Former referee suggests Spurs avoided a late penalty call<\/p>\n
Tottenham fans were left holding their breath late on when Erling Haaland went down in the box just before a City corner was taken. The referee waved play on, and VAR chose not to step in. Gallagher believes the officials stood by their decision because the ball was not in play at the time of the incident.<\/p>\n
Speaking to Sky Sports, the former PGMOL chief explained:
\n\u201cI heard the VAR say that when it happened, the ball was still dead for the corner.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s where Dragusin was very fortunate, because if the ball had been delivered into the area, VAR would almost certainly have intervened. He wasn\u2019t even watching the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n
Guardiola and Frank clash over Solanke\u2019s opener<\/p>\n
Another flashpoint arrived early in the second half when Solanke\u2019s first goal sparked debate. Pep Guardiola felt the goal should have been disallowed for a foul on Marc Guehi, according to The Guardian.<\/p>\n
Frank, however, stood firmly by the referee\u2019s decision, arguing that officials need a higher bar before penalising physical contact.<\/p>\n
Gallagher added his perspective:
\n\u201cAt the time, the main discussion was about offside\u2014nobody really focused on a possible foul. City\u2019s players were appealing for offside, and that\u2019s what the check was for.<\/p>\n
\u201cSolanke clearly gets the first touch, and Guehi steps across him. Ultimately, it\u2019s a decision for the referee on the pitch, and there\u2019s no clear and obvious error.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rodri \u201clucky\u201d to avoid dismissal<\/p>\n
Gallagher also addressed claims that Rodri should have been shown a second yellow card, stating:
\n\u201cRodri is extremely fortunate. His manager then takes him off.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Former Premier League official Dermot Gallagher has weighed in on three major refereeing calls from Tottenham\u2019s clash with Manchester City. At half-time, Spurs appeared out of the contest, trailing 2\u20130 as City dominated the opening period and Tottenham struggled to make any real impact. But the hosts showed real character after the break, mounting an …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":58410,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/IMG_1908.webp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=58409"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58409\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58411,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58409\/revisions\/58411"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/58410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}