Send-offs and VAR festival
Tottenham loses crazy 111-minute derby
November 7, 2023, 6:18 a.m
Two sendings off and numerous VAR interventions turned the London derby between Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea into a wild game. Five goals were scored, three of them in a total of 21 minutes of stoppage time.
In a turbulent London city derby, Tottenham Hotspur missed out on returning to the top of the English Premier League table with their first defeat of the season. The Spurs lost 1:4 (1:1) against Chelsea FC after two dismissals, many VAR decisions and a total of 21 minutes of stoppage time. With 26 points, Tottenham is one point behind defending champions Manchester City. At Chelsea FC, which is tenth in the table, coach Mauricio Pochettino celebrated a successful return to his old place of work. The Argentine was coach of Spurs from 2014 to 2019, which he even led to the Champions League final.
After the hosts’ early lead through Dejan Kulusevski (6th), things went haywire. First, two Chelsea goals were conceded by the video referee for handball and offside. However, the VAR also intervened when Tottenham’s Cristian Romero committed an overly hard foul in the penalty area, for which the Argentine was shown a red card (33′). Cole Palmer converted the penalty to equalize (35th). “I thought we started very well, scored a great goal, then we were just centimeters away from a second goal, but it was offside,” said Spurs coach Ange Postecoglou, recapitulating the initial phase. “Then the game got out of control, a lot happened that caused the game to no longer fit the parameters that we want to play.”
Things got even worse for the hosts in the second half when Destiny Udogie received a yellow-red card (55′). With two men in the majority, Chelsea scored the opening goal through Nicolas Jackson (75th). But the Spurs didn’t give up and had an offside goal and two great chances. However, the equalizer would not come in nine minutes of added time – twelve minutes had already been added to the first half. Instead, Jackson made everything clear on two counterattacks (90+4 and 90+7). “I am very proud of the players’ effort, will, determination and desire to get something out of the game,” said Postecoglou. It just wasn’t any use.