Tottenham head coach Ange Postecoglou believes Monday night’s chaotic defeat to Chelsea spiralled ‘out of control’ following another night of refereeing controversy.
Chelsea boss Mauricio Pochettino’s first return to Spurs was overshadowed by pandemonium on the pitch as nine-man Tottenham lost their first Premier League game of the season courtesy of Nicolas Jackson’s hat-trick and Cole Palmer’s penalty.
The clash saw five goals disallowed through VAR, Cristian Romero and Destiny Odogie sent off for Spurs, Postecoglou booked and Micky van de Ven suffer a ‘significant’ hamstring injury.
But yet again the process of VAR took centre stage after a total of 21 minutes of stoppage was played – leaving Postecoglou worried about the direction football is headed.
‘It is pretty hard to process. It is almost impossible to analyse the game because it just seemed to get out of control for large parts of it,’ said the Australian.
‘The red card (for Romero) affected the game, I felt like I was standing around waiting for things to happen, with VAR intervention. It felt like a lot of standing around.
‘There will be a forensic study of every decision out there, I think that is the way the game is going and I don’t like it. If you look at all that standing around we did today, maybe people enjoy that sort of thing but I’d rather see us playing football.
‘You have to accept the referee’s decision, that is how I grew up. This constant erosion of the referee’s authority is where the game is going to get – they are not going to have any authority.
‘We are going to be under the control of someone with a TV screen a few miles away.
‘The decision is the decision. In 26 years I have had plenty of bad decisions, I have had plenty fall in my favour. It is what it is.
James Maddison was substituted in the first half and Postecoglou added: ‘He got a knock on the ankle, we were down one man already. It made sense to make a couple of changes at that point.’
‘Premier League managers should just manage. I was taught to respect the officials. But managers – me included – try to find a way to bend the rules.’
On his winning return to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Pochettino said: ‘I think we deserve to win, we forced them to make mistakes.
‘Our performance was good, they are top of the table. Everything you can see in the game was fair.
‘It is amazing for him [Jackson] and really important to build confidence.
‘I think 4-1 in the end we deserved the victory and the three points and it is really important because we have a really important game next with Manchester City.
‘It is clear from the beginning we didn’t have the whole squad. This momentum we need to build and on Sunday we have another opportunity to show we are in a good way.’
On the use of VAR, Pochettino added: ‘This is football. We won and deserved it. The technology is there and we need to accept. Many things happen on the pitch and you need to verify and check.’
Jackson himself said: ‘I am very happy and it has been a difficult time for everybody in the team.
‘We are coming back really slowly and happy to have scored three goals. It’s my first hat-trick, so I am happy to have done it with the biggest club in England and everywhere.’
Olivia Martin is a dedicated sports journalist based in the UK. With a passion for various athletic disciplines, she covers everything from major league championships to local sports events, delivering up-to-the-minute updates and in-depth analysis.
