Richard Keys insists referee John Brooks is off the hook for not spotting Tottenham Hotspur goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario handling the ball outside the box on Saturday.
Spurs made an initial shaky start to their campaign after picking up only one win from the first four games but they picked up their second win last weekend against Brentford to move tenth in the league table.
Last week there were some controversial and criticised refereeing decision from the Premier League and Vicario not getting a pulled up for handling the ball outside his technical area was one of them.
Keys stressed that the Spurs shot-stopped did not stop a goalscoring chance from Brentford so the VAR officials could not get involved in the matter.
He reiterated that Brooks got out of trouble for not spotting the Spurs goalkeeper’s offence against the Bees.
“There was a lot of confusion as to why Tottenham’s Vicario wasn’t sent off for handling outside the box”, Keys wrote on his latest blog about the Spurs custodian.
“I’m not convinced John Brooks saw the offence as Vicario got himself into a real mess, juggling the ball on the edge of his box, but it didn’t matter.
“The first two times the keeper touched the ball he was inside his area.
“The third time he wasn’t, but it wasn’t a red card offence.
“It would’ve been if Vicario had denied Brentford a clear and obvious scoring attempt, but that wasn’t the case – so VAR couldn’t get involved and Brooks was off the hook.”
Vicario’s lack of bravery to come for crosses has been heavily criticised and a red card for handling the ball outside the box could have been extremely damaging.
