Everton lost to Spurs 3-0 at home on Sunday, ending the Toffees' unbeaten run at the Hill Dickinson Stadium to kickstart the new ground's season.
The scoring began in the 19th minute when center back Micky van de Ven nodded home the opener past Jordan Pickford off a well-executed corner routine that went from Mo Kudus' delivery to Rodrigo Bentancur at the back post, who found van de Ven in the middle for the goal.
There was a brief moment, however, just before the defender scored, where he clearly wraps his arm around Pickford, possibly slowing down the Everton goalkeeper's attempt to save the header. It wasn't a ton of contact, but it was potentially impactful.
This, of course, is important because of what happened a few minutes later.
Everton earned a corner off a good shot by James Garner, and it appeared that Jake O'Brien had equalized for the home side. But Iliman Ndiaye was eventually deemed to be in an offside position when O'Brien's header was taken, or possibly to have impeded the goalkeeper, although it did not appear, either in real time or on replay, that Guglielmo Vicario had any chance of making the save.
VAR intervened and the goal was taken away because Ndiaye and Grealish were deemed to be "interferring with the goalkeeper," even though neither were grabbing or pulling on Vicario the way van de Ven had with Pickford.
And then, in the 5th minute of first half stoppage time, Tottenham doubled their lead via the Dutch defender, who once again appeared to have his hands all over Pickford, this time via a clear-as-day extended arm that shoved the Everton keeper off his spot.
Three goals in the half, and all three had a basis for having gone the other direction. So why was it only the Everton goal that got overturned?
To make things worse, there was a moment in the 74th minute where Idrissa Gana Gueye ran after a ball in the air looping into Spurs' box and Kudus just took Gana out, not even looking at the ball. No second look, no VAR intervention, play on.
Maybe it wouldn't matter whether Everton got the one goal, or even if they got that penalty, since they did give away a third to Pepe Sarr in the 89th minute, but to be frank, that was the only goal of the match that was without controversy.
The point isn't that Everton played well enough to win, as they continue not to take their chances, and could certainly use a shakeup from the setup that has become the norm for David Moyes' side.
Instead, the question is whether the game is being officiated reasonably for both sides. Sunday's match was yet another example of how it most certainly is not.