Jose Mourinho said Paul Pogba should have been sent off for an elbow on Spurs defender Serge Aurier in their 3-1 defeat to Manchester United on Sunday.
In a controversial opening half at White Hart Lane, the Manchester United midfielder seemed to catch Aurier with his arm when shielding the ball, shortly before Scott McTominay was penalised for making contact with Son Heung-min’s face with a stray hand.
That incident led to Edinson Cavani’s opening goal being disallowed, with Spurs taking the lead through Son minutes later, although United recovered with goals from Fred, Cavani and Mason Greenwood in the second half.
When asked if United had been unlucky to have their first-half goal ruled out following a pitch-side review by Chris Kavanagh, Mourinho replied by saying United should have been down to 10 men.
“I think we were unlucky because Paul Pogba should have had a red card for an elbow on Serge Aurier,” the Tottenham manager told Sky Sports. “So if you are going to speak about VAR maybe you have to go deeper than that.”
Tottenham’s defeat was the seventh time in the Premier League this season that they had failed to win after leading at half-time.
Mourinho said Spurs “deserved more than they got” following the game, while also eluding to his disappointment at his side’s poor second-half record.
“It’s a concern. I know some of the reasons, but it’s very hard for me [to talk about it it]. I prefer to praise my players for their effort because I thought they gave everything they had. I believe they deserve more than what they got, so I praise them for that, but I praise United for their victory [as well].”
The result was also a blow to Spurs’ top-four hopes, and the London side are now six points behind fourth place West Ham, while also trailing Chelsea and Liverpool.
“We need points and we lost three. There’s no way to run away from that,” Mourinho said. “We needed points from the game and we didn’t get them.”
