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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Chelsea win steeped in controversy

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London, Dec 23 - Although there has always been bitter rivalry between these two London teams, this Chelsea 2-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur proved to be one of the most controversial. In a match which saw Chelsea put on their best performance of the season so far, it was sad to see racism (particularly against black players) raise its ugly head again. Chelsea captain Cesar Azpilicueta said: “It is made clear to us all that if we have heard any racist incident to report it. Toni (Rudiger) came to me and said he was listening to racist songs towards him so I reported it to the referee. We are very concerned, altogether we need to make it stop.” He added: “I hope everything gets clear and we eradicate it as soon as possible. It’s an issue not just in football but in life.”


There were three announcements made by Tottenham during the play: “Racist behaviour of spectators is interfering with the game, please remember in football there is no place for racism.” This was the first time Fifa’s racism protocol has been used in the Premier League. Spurs coach, Jose Mourinho said: “It saddens me. I hate racism in society, I hate it in football.” Even Tottenham player, Toby Alderweireld said at the end of the game: “We are all sick of it.”


A spokesman on behalf of the north London club said: “We are now conducting a thorough investigation which will include liaising with Chelsea and their players for their observations. Any form of racism is completely unacceptable and will not be tolerated in our stadium. We shall take the strongest possible action against any individual found to be behaving in such a way, including stadium bans.”


Chelsea dominated the play throughout the first half taking the lead in the 12th minute through Willian who was outstanding and the man-of-the-match. Tottenham never coped with his directness and imagination. They were slow to spot a quick exchange of passes between Willian and Mateo Kovacic. Receiving the ball in space on the left side, Willian sold Serge Aurier a stepover dummy, shifted the ball inside on to his right foot a curled a powerful shot through a crowd of bodies and into the far corner. A superb goal, perfectly struck.


While Chelsea’s attacking players Willian, Mason Mount and Tammy Abraham seemed to operate with mutual understanding, Spurs players at times seemed to drift aimlessly. They missed to fine chances in the first half, Harry Kane lifted the ball over the bar from nine yards and Heung-Min Son shot wide after receiving an excellent pass for Kane.


The game was effectively decided when Tottenham goalkeeper Paulo Gazzaniga rushed out foolishly to clatter into Marco Alonso in added time of first half. The referee wrongly at first penalised Alonso and award a free kick to Spurs but it felt wrong and VAR replays showed that Alonso had stopped his run and Gazzaniga had felled him with a raised foot. Willian took the spot kick and sent the goalkeeper the wrong way.


The racism incident followed the sending off of Son who had kicked out at Rudiger in the 62nd minute after a tackle. Mourinho did not think the sending off was right. “That was a crucial moment of the game. “That red card is a strange one,” he said. Sarcastically adding: “I hope Rudiger recovers quick from the broken ribs.”


Mourinho was also critical of the Chelsea coach Frank Lampard who he said had copied the playing system of the previous coach, Antonio Conte with their 3-4-3 formation.


But an annoyed Lampard said: “I’m not trying to clone anyone’s system. Half the players weren’t even there (at Conte’s time). The way we played was more about whether this can be a system that helps us defensively and offensively against Tottenham.” He added: “We spoke a lot this week. We worked with the players on the pitch. We’ve waited a long time through a week’s training to be able to work on what we wanted (to do) here.”


On the sending off of Son, Lampard, added: “I will not have any words said about how Toni Rudiger dealt with that. It was a red card.”


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