Premier League: Lampard slams VAR for Taiwo Awoniyi decision

Frank Lampard was left furious with VAR after Coventry City's 3-1 defeat to Everton. 🚨Frank Lampard reacts to the controversial refereeing decisions following Coventry's 3-1 defeat to Everton: 🗣️Lampard: "I can't believe what I've just watched.

We lose 3-1 and the story of the night is James Tarkowski grabbing a handful of Caleb Yirenkyi's hair in an aerial challenge inside the box around the 40th minute and getting away with it. He jumps, Tarkowski's arm comes up, he gets a grip and yanks him out of the challenge.

That's not a natural coming-together. That's clear contact that affects the outcome of the jump, and we're supposed to just accept that VAR has a look and waves it away?

It was an incident that looked bad enough, clear enough, that it needed a proper explanation. And when you're a Championship side trying to compete with a Premier League club, those little differences in how things are viewed start to feel very convenient.

Then you've got the Mykolenko challenge on Taiwo. He goes down in the box after contact.

From where I was standing, and from what I've seen since, if that exact challenge happens on the edge of the box, it's a foul. So why does the line on the floor suddenly change the laws of the game?

I know not every appeal is right. But when you're consistently on the wrong end of the marginal ones and the other team isn't, you start asking questions about consistency.

Harrison Armstrong's handball is the same story. The ball hits his arm after a good move from Gboho.

But I've watched enough of these now to know that the exact same body shape, the exact same distance, gets given the other way plenty of times. So either the law is being applied differently depending on who's attacking, or VAR is just guessing."