VAR: The wolf in football's hen house

Watching all the delays unfold on Sky Sport’s Monday Night Football was an education in itself, but not a pleasant one.

VAR FARCE: The big screen shows VAR checking a goal for a possible offside. Photo credit: John Walton/PA Wire.

Progress is in the eye of the beholder so Monday night’s Premier League frenzy between Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea was the perfect distillation as to how football’s embrace of in-game technology has split the game’s church down the middle between traditionalists and new wave disciples.

A first-half wired with explosive moments took just shy of an hour to complete. There were disallowed goals, injuries, cards and other bread-and-butter incidents aplenty but a dozen of the minutes added on were needed to make up for the time lost to VAR alone while referee Michael Oliver linked up with his colleagues in Stockley Park.