‘It has damaged English football’

Mauricio Pochettino has slammed the decision to rule out Axel Disasi’s goal, which would have put Chelsea 3-2 up against Aston Villa in the fifth minute of stoppage time at Villa Park, claiming that VAR “has damaged English football”.

Second half goals from Noni Madueke and Conor Gallagher helped Chelsea to fight from two goals down at Villa Park after Marc Cucurella’s third-minute own goal and Morgan Rogers’ 42nd-minute strike gave the hosts an advantage.

Disasi looked to have completed the turnaround in the fifth minute of stoppage-time, but team-mate Benoit Badiashile was adjudged to have fouled Diego Carlos in the process of working open space before sending in a cross.

When asked by TNT Sports about his frustrations, Pochettino insisted: “I’m not frustrated. I am relaxed, I am calm, I want to say nothing wrong.”

However, the Chelsea boss shared his thoughts on the seismic impact VAR is having on crucial moments in matches in the English top-flight.

“Everyone that was watching the game will feel disappointed,” he said.

“Two different things the referee said it was a foul and disallowed the goal and then going to the VAR to confirm.

“It’s unbelievable, it’s ridiculous, it’s difficult to accept this kind of thing. In the [FA Cup] semi-final 2 weeks ago it was handball and it was no penalty and the referee didn’t check.

“It has damaged English football. It has damaged the image. Aston Villa players and fans didn’t understand why [it was ruled out].

“They said it was foul and if you see the challenge what happened if we go into every single challenge like this it is going to be a foul and we wouldn’t finish the game with 11 [players].

“We can talk about performance, we can talk about position we can talk about many things about football but this type of decision is damaging the games.”

The Argentine praised his side’s second half showing against a “good team” in Villa, who are now seven points clear of fifth-placed Tottenham in the Premier League table.

But instead of focus on his side’s improved performance, Pochettino said the “headline” will be on the late controversy.

“The performance was very good and we played really well,” he said. “In the first half we concede two goals so easy, so soft but we tried to change in second half and we didnt concede too much.

“To come here and play Aston Villa, another team fighting for top four, [I] was very pleased with performance of the team, players were good.

“I think that is what we expected and today was an opportunity against a good team like Aston Villa. Now we need to move on, the headline is going to be the disallowed goal in the last minute.”

The disallowed goal dampens Chelsea’s hopes of salvaging a last-ditch foray towards the UEFA Europa League spots. They now sit six points below Manchester United in sixth, but still with a game in hand on Erik ten Hag’s side.

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