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Chelsea beat 9-man Tottenham in chaotic game with 5 goals disallowed as Ange bemoans VAR

Chelsea beat 9-man Tottenham in what was a chaotic game with 5 goals disallowed as Ange Postecoglou bemoans the use of VAR.

Even by half time, the game was an instant Premier League classic, and even more so come the final whistle with fans in the stands and watching on at home left fascinated by what they had just watched play out.

Nicolas Jackson scored three second-half goals to inflict the first Premier League defeat of the season on Tottenham, with Mauricio Pochettino tasting victory on his return against Spurs after Cristian Romero and Destiny Udogie saw red.

Mauricio Pochettino’s side came away with a 4-1 victory against nine players which really didn’t begin to tell half the story.

Spurs went ahead after only six minutes after Dejan Kulusevski cut inside from the right and saw his effort deflected off Levi Colwill and go beyond the wrongfooted Robert Sanchez.

However, VAR got into action, before Chelsea levelled through a Cole Palmer penalty on 35 minutes. First Heung-min Son saw his goal disallowed for offside before Raheem Sterling had a goal ruled out for handball with this reviewed, and Moises Caicedo also having a goal ruled out for offside.

However, in the build-up to one final incident, Cristian Romero was adjudged to have brought down Enzo Fernandez in the box and was shown a red card by referee Michael Oliver.

The hosts went down to nine men with Destiny Udogie handed a second yellow card for a late challenge on Sterling on 55 minutes.

Chelsea took the lead with 15 minutes left on the clock as Nicholas Jackson netted, from Sterling’s square ball set up.

Son was also denied by Sanchez in stoppage time, and then on 84 minutes, Conor Gallagher squared for Jackson to tap home his second on the counter-attack. Jackson got onto Palmer’s through ball to round Vicario and complete his hat-trick and give Chelsea 4-1 win.

This means leaders Manchester City remain top of the Premier League table, with Spurs remaining in second – just a point adrift – while Chelsea climb into the top half.

Fair to say the highlights of the game is a must see…

⚽ 6′ Kulusevski
❌ 14′ Son goal (VAR ruled out))
🟡 18′ Udogie
❌ 21′ Sterling goal (VAR ruled out))
❌ 28′ Caicedo goal (VAR ruled out))
🔴 33′ Romero sent off
🔄 34′ Johnson off, Dier in
⚽ 35′ Palmer (P)
🟡 41′ Postecoglou
➕ 12′ mins added time
🔄 45+1′ van de Ven injured, Emerson in
🔄 45+1′ Maddison injured, Højbjerg in
🟡 45+9′ Sarr
🟡 45+9′ Jackson
🟡 45+9′ Colwill
🔴 54′ Udogie sent off
⚽️ 75′ Jackson scores
❌ Dier goal (VAR ruled out)
🟡 86′ Malo Gusto
🟡 89′ Mudryk
➕ 9′ mins added time
⚽️ 93′ Jackson
🟡 93′ Ugochukwu
⚽️ 96′ Jackson

Player ratings (via Sky Sports)

Tottenham: Vicario (8), Porro (7), Romero (4), Van de Ven (6), Udogie (5); Bissouma (7), Sarr (7); Kulusevski (7), Maddison (6), Johnson (7); Son (7).

Subs: Skipp (6), Hojbjerg (7), Royal (6), Dier (7), Bentancur (6).

Chelsea: Sanchez (6); James (7), Silva (6), Colwill (5), Disasi (6); Caicedo (6), Gallagher (7), Fernandez (6); Palmer (7), Jackson (8), Sterling (8).

Subs: Cucurella (6), Mudryk (6), Gusto (6).

Man of the match: Nicolas Jackson.

Ange Postecoglou called for an end to the questioning of officials’ decisions in order to prevent their authority being undermined.

“Decisions are decisions: you either accept it or you don’t,” Postecoglou told Sky Sports.

“Some of it is self-inflicted [but] if we are going to go out and complain about bad decisions every week what will happen is what happened today: a forensic study of every decision.

“I think that’s the way the game is going. I don’t like it – I could be a lone voice as I’m told that’s the way forward. With VAR intervention it just felt like a lot of standing around.

“At some point, we have to accept the referee’s decision. This constant erosion of referees’ authority, this is what the game is going to get: they will not have any authority, it is going to get diminished and we are going to be in the control of someone a few miles away watching a TV screen.”

When questioned later in his press conference if he had been involved in a crazier game during his managerial career, he said: “No, but I think it’s going to become the norm. It’s where the game is heading.

“I think it’s unfortunately how we’re going to have to watch and participate in football from now on. I’ve said it before that I don’t like it. I don’t like the standing around, I don’t like the theatre around waiting for decisions.

“But I know that I’m in the wilderness on that. In my 26 years [as a manager], I was always ready to accept the referee’s decision good, bad or otherwise. I’ve had some shockers in my career let me tell you, and I’ve had some go my way as well.

“But I’d cop that because I just wanted the game to be played. But when we’re complaining about decisions every week, this is what’s going to happen. People are just going to forensically scrutinise everything to make sure they’re comfortable it’s right, and then even after that, we’re still not happy.

“What does that mean? It means we’re going to see a lot of standing around. I just think it’s diminishing the authority of the referee.

“You can’t tell me the referee is in control of games now – they’re not. The control is outside of that, but that’s the way the game is going and you have to accept that and try to deal with it.”

When being pressed on whether there was support from other managers and those at the club to put pressure on the Premier League to scrap VAR, Postecoglou said: “There doesn’t seem to be a great call for us to go back to accepting the referee’s decision in the majority of cases.

“I understand goal-line technology. That’s a simple one as that came in and no one’s complained about it. But in searching for this utopia where there are no wrong decisions in a game… that doesn’t exist and it never will.

“But it’s the road that everyone wants to go down. Some of it’s self-inflicted because we all complain about decisions every week. It’s nothing new, but in the past, we got on with it. We didn’t find the need for a miracle cure for it.

“I don’t think that’s a viable option as we seemed to have opened that door and allowed technology in. Now, we want transparency and I can guarantee the next thing is we will have referees mic’d up explaining decisions.

“There’s plenty of other sports you can watch where referees do that but I don’t think it should be in football. But I’m in the wilderness on that one.

“Premier League managers should just manage their football clubs. I’ve never and I never will talk to referees about the rules of the game. I was taught that you grow up and you respect the officials.

“Now, managers look for ways to bend the rules. Tell me what the rule is, and I guarantee you will have a room full of managers processing ‘how can I get around this’.

“What I want are the best officials always being upskilled to officiate the game but it’s so hard for referees to officiate these days. Their authority is constantly getting diminished.

“I grew up afraid of referees like they were policemen. I’m old school, I’m from a bygone era. I just like the purity of the game but part of it is my problem. I’ve got to embrace it and find a way to work with it but it goes against everything I want from my team.

“I want my team to play fast, attacking, high-tempo, go-at-it football. If we get a red card and a penalty against us, so what? Let’s cop it and let’s go again. But we have to stand around for two minutes to work out if someone was offside or not.

“Let the linesman make the decision. Remember when it used to be the benefit of the doubt for the attacker? We all lived with it. The game didn’t collapse. But I’m an old man shouting at the clouds.”

“We are both frustrated,” Pochettino adds “OK, one team won, the other lost. We wanted technology to arrive and now we can’t complain. When I first came here, I said I didn’t agree with VAR but now I support it. We have to find the right way to use it.

“Today, we played 110 or 120 minutes. I don’t know if it’s now 1am or 2am in the morning! This is the football we opened ourselves up to receive. I don’t know many coaches who wanted it when it came in.

“The balance is really difficult, but we all have to help each other to improve the game.”

Chelsea boss Mauricio Pochettino speaking to Sky Sports:

On Spurs’ high line: “Look, when you are on the top of the table you can try everything. When the confidence is there you try it. If we try something like this then in every movement you concede. We are maybe in a different position and with space in behind we can maybe score more goals.”

On Nicolas Jackson’s goals: “I think it is about building his confidence. We know when a striker is young and arrives at a club like Chelsea it is massive. He is so young and came from Spain, different league and he needs to improve. I hope this hat-trick can allow him top play more relaxed and find the confidence he needs.”

Here’s how fans reacted after Chelsea beat 9-man Tottenham in what was a chaotic game with 5 goals disallowed as Ange bemoans VAR…

@harrythills: Prime Barclays 🤌🏻

@RossBerkeley1: Absolute madness of a game.. entertaining in a way to say the least!

@DPCFC: Up there with the most ridiculous game I’ve ever seen. Even better we some how shit housed our way to a 4-1 win with a hat trick from probably one of our worst strikers to ever don the shirt. Spurs are as Spursy as ever 🤣🤣

@rickwhufc: Just one of the most mental games I’ve ever watched, never watched a team win 1-4 and be absolute dogshit 🤣 #TOTCHE

@JakeNoble1: Quality game tbf

@supersouttar: Like being on acid watching this game

@Jack432J: The most bizarre game they’ll be for a long time. VAR had a pretty good night. Players really buying into what Ange is doing at Tottenham. Discipline let them down. Chelsea love making hard work of anything struggled for large periods against 9 men.

@alfieperrett: Never seen a game where the result is more embarrassing for the winning side.

@Timelord81r: Disgustingly flattering score line, Chelsea were lucky imo and might come out looking worse off even with the win? Spurs can be proud of how they fought with 9 men after rightful sending offs. We’ve lost a lot of talent tonight through injury or reds 👀 Mentally though, strong

@WhingerSpice: Possibly the best loss I can remember. Wonderful fighting spirit and nearly got something from it. But ultimately, a shame to gift them a game we really should’ve won. It’s points dropped against a much weaker side. At home.

@RonnieStidolph: I thought Tottenham were brilliant when they went down to 10 and 9 men 👏👏👏. Even created chances, showing how shaky Chelsea actually are! Absolutely mental game to watch! Credit to Tottenham fans too. Could have sank into dispare, but got vocal & got behind their team 👏👏👏

@alanduck1872: What a game of football for the neutral. Flattering result for Chelsea who are poor. Superb effort from 9 men who still created chances. Poor discipline from 2 players cost spurs. Not sure spurs will challenge for title but certainly an exciting watch under Ange

@BHRiggers: Chaotic, brilliant and totally bonkers. Amazing game, shame for Spurs that Romero and Udogie were both absolutely desperate to get themselves sent off. Pair of clowns in a thoroughly entertaining circus! #TOTCHE

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