Tottenham came from behind to defeat Chelsea 1-4 in the 11th round of the 2023-2024 Premier League at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, England, at 5 a.m. ET on Sunday. Two sending-offs, Cristian Romero and Destiny Udoh, hurt the Blues.
With their first loss of the season, Spurs fell to 26 points (W8 D2 L1) and failed to regain the lead at the top of the table. Manchester City (27 points) remained in first place. London Derby winner Chelsea jumped to 10th place with 15 points (4 wins, 3 draws, 4 losses).
For Tottenham, it was a game where they were unlucky to be sent off. But from then on, it was a nightmare. In the 27th minute, Romero cleared the ball out of the box and roughly stepped on Enzo Fernandez’s ankle. After an on-field review, referee Michael Oliver awarded a penalty kick and a direct dismissal.
Cole Palmer stepped up to take the spot kick, and his shot went into the hands of Guglielmo Vicario to tie the game. In an instant, Spurs had lost the lead and a player. Forced to play with 10 men, Tottenham immediately made a change to their defense, taking off Brennan Johnson and bringing on Eric Dier. It was Dyer’s first start of the season.
To add insult to injury disaster, both key midfielder James Maddison and key defender Mickey van der Vaan went down with injuries. In the 41st minute, Maddison went down holding his ankle on his own, and three minutes later, van der Vaan went down after grabbing the back of his right thigh while sprinting, apparently pulling a hamstring muscle in the process.
Spurs hastily removed the two players, bringing on Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and right fullback Emerson Royale. Van der Vaart limped off the field and was helped off by the medical staff. That wasn’t the end of it. Nine minutes into the second half, Udoji was sent off for accumulated cautions, bringing the number of Tottenham players on the pitch to nine. Having already received a yellow card, he picked up a second booking for tripping Raheem Sterling with a hard tackle.토토사이트
In the blink of an eye, Spurs were down to nine men after losing four key players. Normally, it would have made sense to defend as much as possible and hope for a draw, but Postecoglou had a different idea: he moved his back line up to near the halfway line and asked Vicario to play as a sweeper-keeper and cover the space behind.
The result was an extreme formation. All seven players, except for Son Heung-min, stayed on the center line. The lone striker, Son Heung-min, was positioned close to the opposing defender, while the three midfielders and four defenders lined up to create an offside trap.
Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher called Postecoglou’s move “almost” a stroke of genius, saying, “The great thing about Spurs is that even with nine men, they pushed Chelsea around.” “If you look at the scoreline, it’s a hammering, but Chelsea really struggled in that game,” he said.
“If Chelsea had drawn against Tottenham with nine men, it would have been a really bad result. To be honest, when Tottenham went down to nine men, I think we all thought, ‘This is crazy’. It’s because of the high line, but Tottenham fought well,” he emphasized.
“If Rodrigo Bentancur and Son Heung-min had scoring chances because of the high line, we don’t know the real outcome. If they had scored, it could have been a different result,” he added.
No Responses