Two reds, five goals and endless VAR as Chelsea end Spurs' unbeaten run

Football

Published: 07 Nov. 2023, 09:02 Updated: 07 Nov. 2023, 17:17

Two reds, five goals and endless VAR as Chelsea end Spurs' unbeaten run

Tottenham Hotspur's Son Heung-min looks dejected after the final whistle following a Premier League game against Chelsea at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in north London on Monday. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

It was a night to forget for Tottenham but one to remember for any fan of football, sport in general or Hollywood-level drama on Monday, as Spurs’ unbeaten run ended in a wild London derby that saw a month’s worth of Premier League action crammed into one emphatic game.

When the dust settled after 10 minutes of stoppage time, Chelsea walked away with a 4-1 win on the road, the first significant victory under Mauricio Pochettino, but that final score does not even begin to tell the full story.

Everything started right for Ange Postecoglou’s Tottenham, Dejan Kulusevski opening the scoring in the sixth minute to put the home team up. That momentum should have carried Spurs through, if not for a few bad decisions in the worst possible moments that derailed Angeball in the most spectacular way.

Kulusevski’s early goal was the first sign that the fans packed into Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in north London were in for a treat. Over the course of the first half, the increasingly stunned crowd saw two goals scored, four goals disallowed — including an offside against Son Heung-min — four yellow cards and a red card.

That red went to Cristian Romero, sent off after a VAR review of a poor challenge in the penalty area that gave Chelsea the penalty that ultimately tied things up.

Down to 10 men with an hour still to play, that red card could have ended it for Tottenham. Yet the Lilywhites still hung on. Both James Maddison and Micky van de Ven exited with injuries during stoppage time at the end of the first half, but Spurs still hung on. Destiny Udogie was sent off with a red card in the 55th minute, but Spurs still hung on.

In fact, it was not until the 75th minute, 20 minutes after Chelsea found themselves facing a nine-man team, that the Blues finally broke through. Nicolas Jackson put Chelsea up 2-1, but the drama was still not over — Eric Dier had an equalizer disallowed just four minutes later.

Even then, Spurs stayed in the game until stoppage time, with captain Son and Rodrigo Bentancur both blowing chances at an equalizer. Jackson eventually stumbled his way into a hat trick, scoring twice after the 90-minute mark for the 4-1 win, but it’s difficult to marry that result with what happened on the pitch.

Chelsea, of course, deserve the win. There was very little controversy over either red card, so Tottenham’s downfall was largely of their own making. Jackson rightfully deserves to be lauded as a hero — insert “Thriller” reference here — in west London, delivering the win that has lifted the Blues back into the top half of the table.

But for Tottenham it is a confusing one to analyze. Romero and Udogie made mistakes and paid the price, but the rest of the lineup actually had a pretty good game. The wheels did not come off until the final minutes, despite the odds being increasingly piled in Chelsea’s favor. As pointless a statement as it may be, there’s likely little doubt in anybody’s mind that without those red cards, it would have easily gone Tottenham’s way.

Moving forward, Postecoglou has some problems.

If Maddison is out, that could seriously disrupt the Son-Maddison magic that has driven this Tottenham squad far beyond where anybody thought they would be this season.

Romero is going to be suspended for the next three games — and with a league-leading four red cards since the 2021-22 season, this is a discipline problem that needs to be dealt with — and Van de Ven looks like he could be out with a hamstring injury for a while, leaving Tottenham without their two go-to center-backs.

Speaking after the game, Postecoglou remained characteristically unfazed.

"There was a fair bit going on, a lot of VAR intervention, a hard game for me to analyze but I am very proud of the players,” he told the BBC. “Right to the end they were trying to create something for us.

"The players couldn't give any more than they did, part of this game is will, effort and determination and they showed that."

While Postecoglou has built a brand out of avoiding criticizing or complaining in post-match press conferences, he did acknowledge his frustration with how much VAR has changed the pace of the game.

“I'm old school and from a bygone era,” Postecoglou said. “I like the purity of the game. I want my team to play high energy, relentless attacking football. If we get a red card, we cop it and we keep going. Instead we're all just standing around waiting for decisions.”

Pochettino, a former Spurs manager and something of a hero in N17, echoed Postecoglou’s comments.

“I agree with him,” the Argentine manager said. “When I was here they started to implement the VAR and I said I didn't like it but we had to support it. Now we're seeing things that are difficult to see. Today we played 110, 120 minutes I don't know, is it 1 a.m. in the morning now?”

Pochettino also praised Spurs, saying they were clearly the better team in the opening 15 minutes, but ultimately everything that happened on the pitch was fair.

Postecoglou will face a challenge next week as he looks to bounce back from the defeat — possibly with a crippled roster — on Saturday as Spurs take on Wolverhampton Wanderers on the road in the Korean derby.

BY JIM BULLEY [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]