‘I didn’t want to’ — Mike Dean sheds light on ‘pathetic’ VAR error which cost Chelsea a win last season

Former Premier League referee Mike Dean has discussed what he has described as a “pathetic” error in judgement during Chelsea’s clash against Tottenham Hotspur at Stamford Bridge last season.

The match is probably most remembered for the flare up between former managers Antonio Conte and Thomas Tuchel after the full-time whistle. It ended in a 2-2 draw after goals from Kalidou Koulibaly, Pierre-Emile Højbjerg, Reece James, and Harry Kane — but the latter should not have stood.

In the dying embers of the match, Cristian Romero escaped punishment following a clear pull on the hair of Marc Cucurella while in the box during a Spurs corner. As the foul was not flagged, Kane went on to score the equaliser deep into stoppage time to deny Chelsea the win.

Dean, who was the video assistant referee for the match back in August 2022, recently appeared on the Up Front podcast with Simon Jordan and admitted he made a mistake, while also revealing why he did not send referee Anthony Taylor to the monitor to assess the incident.

“I missed the stupid hair pull at Chelsea versus Tottenham which was pathetic from my point of view,” Dean said before admitting he would send Taylor to check the VAR screen if he ‘had his time again.’ However, he opted not to in the moment, because he wanted to spare a friend and fellow official from what was already ‘a tough game end to end.’

“I said to Anthony afterwards: ‘I just didn’t want to send you to the screen after what has gone on in the game.’ I didn’t want to send him up because he is a mate as well as a referee and I think I didn’t want to send him up because I didn’t want any more grief than he already had.

“If someone pulls their hair now it’s dead easy. It’s just a brainwave by me, a really bad call by me, and it kind of affected me as VAR going forward.”