Chelsea hand Tottenham and Ange first loss of 2023/24 Premier League season

Ange Postecoglou could only watch on helplessly as his team fell apart and endured their first loss under the watch of the Aussie.

Heartbreak for Ange as Spurs streak ends. (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)

Ange Postecoglou was left fuming after Tottenham’s historic start to the Premier League season ended on Tuesday morning.

The Spurs entered the contest with a chance to go to the top of the table, but fell apart against Chelsea.

Stream Over 50 Sports Live & On-Demand with Kayo. Join now and start streaming instantly >

The London derby was riddled with drama as Tottenham’s Cristian Romero and Destiny Udogie were sent off either side of halftime, as Nicolas Jackson’s second-half hat trick did the business for the visitors.

The Spurs got the perfect start when Dejan Kulusevski found the back of the net only six minutes into the contest.

But it went south from there with Romero being shown a straight red card and sent on his way after an ugly challenge on Enzo Fernandez.

The tackle was initially overlooked before VAR controversially came to the party.

Moises Caicedo’s long-range strike was wiped off after Jackson was found to be off-side. It was then Romero’s challenge was picked up with referee Michael Oliver wasting no time in pointing to the penalty spot and picking out the red card from his pocket.

Cole Palmer made no mistake from the penalty spot as Chelsea levelled the contest up before even more misery was piled on for the Spurs in the second half.

Romero sent on his way. (Photo by Alex Pantling/Getty Images)

Destiny Udogie became the second player to be sent off after receiving his second yellow card following a forceful challenge as he attempted to stop Raheem Sterling.

Postecoglou praised the players left on the pitch but was left fuming post-game at the constant intervention from the video assistant referee.

“There was a fair bit going on, a lot of VAR intervention, a hard game for me to analyse but I am very proud of the players. Right to the end they were trying to create something for us,” he said to BBC Sport.

When asked about how long the VAR took to review decisions, the Aussie was blunt in his assessment.

“I don’t like it, it is the way the game is going. Some of it is self inflicted because if we come out every week complaining about decision that is what will happen, every decision gets forensically checked and we will be sitting around for a long time in every game trying to figure out what is going on,” he said.

“I don’t like it but I am probably in the wilderness with that because I keep getting told that’s where we want to go. I am too old school, I’ll respect the referee’s decision right or wrong. But it is the way the game is going.”

It wasn’t to be for Ange. (Photo by Glyn KIRK / AFP)

Postecoglou’s troops put up a stubborn resistance as Vicario continuously thwarted Chelsea’s attacks, but the visitors eventually got their second goal when Sterling squared the ball for Jackson to tap home.

Jackson then put the result beyond doubt in the 94th minute as Chelsea broke on the counter-attack not long after Heung-Min Son missed a golden chance to equalise.

The Chelsea man then secured his hat-trick with another goal five minutes later to round out the result.

It was a brutal ending to a contest in which four goals were ruled out in the first half.

It was Chelsea who then had the ball in the back of the net thanks to Raheem Sterling, but VAR ruled it out after the England international handled the ball to give himself an advantage.

Not long after Palmer’s equaliser, Chelsea thought they’d taken the lead when Sterling squared a ball across the face of goal for Nicolas Jackson to fire home, only for it to be ruled out for off-side.

Postecoglou was also forced to make three substitutions in the first half, with Eric Dier coming on for Brennan Johnson in a tactical move.

Star defender Micky Van de Ven was forced off just before half time with an injury as Emerson Royal came on to replace him, while James Maddison had to come off in place of Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg.

– with foxsports.com.au