Tottenham Hotspur head coach Ange Postecoglou was in awe of Guglielmo Vicario's "outstanding" performance in the Lilywhites' 2-1 win over Everton on Saturday.
Spurs made it three triumphs on the trot with a hard-fought success over Sean Dyche's team, who travelled to North London aiming for a fifth successive victory in the Premier League.
The Lilywhites raced into a 2-0 lead inside the opening 20 minutes, as Richarlison finished at the near post against his old club before Son Heung-min's shot into the ground nestled into the corner.
However, Spurs' two-goal cushion was far from comfortable, and a resurgent Everton thought that they had cut the deficit in half through Dominic Calvert-Lewin early in the second period, only for VAR to intervene as Andre Gomes was penalised for a foul on Emerson Royal.
The Toffees eventually did reduce the arrears through Gomes in the final 10 minutes and bombarded the Tottenham backline with attacks, but Vicario stood strong with seven saves, including two crucial stops from one-time Spurs loanee Arnaut Danjuma towards the end.
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The summer signing firstly tipped a fierce Danjuma strike over the top before the Everton man struck the bar deep into added time, and his shot bounced off a well-positioned Vicario on the line in a major scare for the Lilywhites.
Vicario's performance was lauded by fans and pundits, and Postecoglou joined in on the praise for his number one, admitting that Tottenham needed his goalkeeping brilliance more than in previous games.
"Vic was outstanding today with a couple of brilliant saves. He's been brilliant from day one for us, and we haven't always needed him like we did today," football.london quotes Postecoglou as saying in his post-game press conference.
"Other times it's probably one or two saves a game, if that, but he's been important in our build-up and in our organisation. But today we needed his goalkeeping. It wasn't just the saves he makes. They're so strong from corners and put so much pressure on the goalkeeper, and I thought he stood up really well."
After a relatively passive opening 40 minutes from Everton's point of view, Dyche's side ended the first half the stronger and had the ball in the back of the net six minutes after the restart via Calvert-Lewin, but they were left to rue a contentious officiating call.
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The consensus at the time was that Gomes was harshly penalised, but Postecoglou - who has long advocated against the use of technology - refused to agree that VAR came to his side's aid on Saturday.
When asked if Spurs were helped out by technology with Calvert-Lewin's disallowed effort, Postecoglou added: "Nah, see that's really bad terminology. Why would it help us out? It was a foul. It didn't help us out and I don't like VAR.
"I don't like it today either. So that's part of the problem because people use that kind of terminology, like it helped or it goes against. It's a tool, it's used. I still don't like it.
"Did it help us? I don't know if it helped us. If that goal stood, we might have scored a third. That's the beauty of football. So I've already said I don't like the way VAR is being used; I didn't like the way it was used today. I thought it was a foul, yeah....but the referee missed it and probably missed another foul as well. That's part of the game, that's part of football."
Tottenham's victory ensured that the Lilywhites will spend Christmas Day in the top four of the Premier League table, and a trip to Brighton & Hove Albion is next up for Postecoglou's team on Thursday evening.
Ben Knapton
