06 November 2023 , 21:12
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"Chaos, chaos, carnage" declared Sky Sports commentator Peter Drury as the teams trudged down the tunnel for half-time.
The Premier League weekend had seemingly already maxed out for officiating controversy, but all that turned out to be just the prelude for a quite insane match between Tottenham and Chelsea.
Arsenal released a statement to support boss Mikel Arteta calling the decisions in his side’s defeat at Newcastle “embarrassing” and a “disgrace”. Kai Havertz and Bruno Guimaraes both escaped red card calls in that match, before the decisive goal was scored following three VAR checks: on the ball going out of play, on a possible foul, and a possible offside.
There was controversy elsewhere too. Manchester United’s opening goal at Fulham was chalked off for a decision that adjudged the offside Harry Maguire to be interfering with play while Sheffield United’s late penalty winner over Wolves was tinged with controversy. But fans had seen nothing yet.
Four goals were ruled out in a chaotic first half (AFP via Getty Images)In the sixth minute in the north London, Dejan Kulusevski cut inside from the right and his shot deflected off Levi Colwill and spun beyond the wrong-footed Robert Sanchez.
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That gave Tottenham, who started the weekend on top of the standings, the lead over Chelsea – languishing in the bottom half of the standings.
Minutes later, Heung-Min Son thought he had doubled the Spurs lead but his effort was ruled out for a marginal offside call. That was close, but it was only the start of a scarcely believable period of chaos.
Romero could hardly complain about his red cardSpurs full-back Destiny Udogie escaped a red card for a studs-up, two-footed challenge in the direction of Raheem Sterling. The Chelsea forward managed to avoid the challenge and a possible serious injury, with suggestions that Udogie was lucky to avoid a dismissal – as he was only booked. His teammate Cristian Romero then avoided a red card despite kicking out at Colwill – again leaving many Chelsea fans bemused.
The Blues frustration was only to grow and grow. Sterling thought he had equalised but his goal was correctly ruled out for a handball in the build-up to the goal. Moises Caicedo then believed he had equalised with a stunning strike but it transpired that Nicolas Jackson was offside as the Ecuadorian got his shot off – and was adjudged to have interfered with play.
Cole Palmer converted his penalty for Chelsea - the only 'goal' of the Blues four to count in the half (Chelsea FC via Getty Images)
Ange Postecoglou is booked for his protests (Javier Garcia/REX/Shutterstock)That was Chelsea’s second goal in quickfire succession that was ruled out, but the Blues did get a reprieve as Romero’s rash challenge inside the area saw the Argentine international sent-off and Cole Palmer dutifully converted the penalty. The Blues thought they had the lead minutes later after Sterling broke through and provided Jackson with a goal, but it was once more correctly disallowed for offside.
The ball had been in the net six times, only twice allowed, while there have been three strong shouts for red cards, of which only one was given. That was before James Maddison and Micky Van de Ven were forced off through injuries for Spurs, whose stunning start was unravelling into a nightmare.
James Maddison suffered an injury that ended his evening early (Alex Morton/Tottenham Hotspur FC/REX/Shutterstock)There were 12 minutes of injury time added at the end of the half, which passed off relatively uneventfully, although yellow cards were handed out to Colwill, Jackson and Pape Sarr were all booked. It was bad-tempered and quite, quite mad. There have been millions of halves of football matches ever played, but none was quite like this one.
The match followed its chaotic path after the break, with Udogie - who escaped a straight red in the first half - dismissed for a second yellow card. Jackson finally gave the lead, with 15 minutes remaining, as they finally bagged a goal against nine men after multiple missed opportunities.
Unbelievably, Spurs thought they had equalised moments later when substitute Eric Dier produced a stunning finish from a free-kick but his effort was correctly disallowed for offside. It was the eighth time of the evening that the ball had found the back of the net, but only three were allowed.
Two more to follow though, with Jackson scoring two more breakaway goals as Spurs pushed forward for a late equaliser. Rodrigo Bentancur even had time to miss a sitter while the game was still 1-2, but two late goals for the visitors put a gloss on the scoreline despite no shortage of question marks over their overall performance.
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