Jose Mourinho praises Steven Bergwijn debut, fumes at VAR

Tottenham Hotspur manager Jose Mourinho was full of praise for debutant Steven Bergwijn but had harsh words for the video assistant referee after his team's 2-0 win over champions Manchester City in the Premier League on Sunday.

Dutch midfielder Bergwijn, signed this week from PSV Eindhoven, put Spurs ahead after 63 minutes with a right-foot volley and lasted 70 minutes before being substituted on his debut.

"The goal was a great goal and so important for us," Mourinho told reporters.

"(It was) the icing on the cake of a very good performance. Independent of the goal his performance was very good, very solid, very mature," Mourinho told reporters.

Mourinho was not as happy with the decision not to send off Raheem Sterling for a bad challenge after 12 minutes on Dele Alli which earned the Manchester City forward a yellow card.

The decision by on pitch referee Mike Dean to caution Sterling was reviewed by the VAR, Kevin Friend, for a possible red card.

"It was a red card to Sterling," he said, adding he could understand given the pace of the game why on-pitch referee Dean might give a yellow card but there was no such excuse for the VAR, Mourinho said.

Alli struggled on after the challenge but was eventually substituted in the 70th minute.

"For me, Mike Dean (gave a) good performance. The problem is the VAR."

"I thought I was going to love VAR the same way I love goal-line technology," he added saying there were no mistakes with goal-line technology but "too many" with VAR.

The win lifted Tottenham to fifth place while Manchester City remain second, trailing Liverpool by a massive 22 points. 

- Reuters