Chelsea records biggest league victory at Tottenham

Nicolas Jackson scored a hat-trick as Chelsea recorded its biggest league victory at Tottenham since the legendary 6-1 in 1997, but that fact barely scratches the surface of a remarkable game of football.

Five disallowed goals, two red cards and a penalty summed up the night in which nine-man Tottenham fell to their first defeat of the season against former boss Mauricio Pochettino on his first return to Spurs since his 2019 sacking.

Spurs lost two players to injury in first-half added time and another to a red card early in the second period, Udogie shown a second yellow.

Spurs struck first as fortune favoured the home side on six minutes. The ball was worked wide to Kulusevski, who cut in off the right flank and went for goal. The ball took a hefty deflection off Colwill to wrong-foot Robert Sanchez and end up in the net.

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Son Heung-Min had the ball in the net from Brennan Johnson’s centre, but the offside flag was raised with VAR ratifying the decision after a lengthy check. Little did we know that was just the beginning of surely one of the busiest halves the video assistant referees have ever had to deal with?

Having shown real grit to avoid being blown away by Tottenham in a frantic first 20 minutes and ultimately level the score with Palmer’s ice-cool penalty, Pochettino’s side seemed to withdraw into themselves the more the circumstances of the match tilted the advantage in their favour.

Tottenham’s unwavering commitment to a startlingly high defensive line with 10 and then nine men was so unusual and unexpected that Chelsea did not seem to know how to deal with it. Instead, they appeared affected by a vociferous home crowd, who grew louder and louder to roar the home side through the growing adversity they faced.

The biggest reason why they did not score earlier was that Jackson — despite scoring a hat-trick — was atrocious with the timing of his runs, consistently going too early and then calling for passes from offside positions. Chelsea eventually stopped looking for him, which made Tottenham’s high defensive line much more viable and less risky.

Once ahead, they also managed their lead remarkably badly, giving the ball away and committing silly fouls that allowed Spurs to pile on late pressure with free kicks.

Chelsea got the win they desperately needed, but Pochettino’s expression in the final minutes underlined that this team has a lot of work to do.