Somehow, a match-week that started with Chelsea selling a football team to themselves ends with an even greater level of farce.
Ange Postecoglou has suffered defeats of a far more humiliating scale than this 1-0 loss at Stamford Bridge, but his ill-advised decision to gloatingly cup his ear after a disallowed goal just made it much worse.
It’s hard not to think that will serve as an epitaph for the Australian’s end. He certainly can’t hear the fans backing him any more.
With Spurs 1-0 down to Enzo Fernandez’s goal and playing abysmally, Postecoglou decided to haul off Lucas Bergvall for Pape Sarr. It was instantly met with chants of “you don’t know what you’re doing” from the away end. Within just five minutes, Sarr had stolen the ball in midfield and driven in an equaliser out of nothing.
Postecoglou immediately turned to the away end and cupped his ears. Except, no sooner had he done that than VAR was checking out the manner in which Sarr had stolen the ball from Moises Caicedo. It looked a very clear foul, although the unusually long check only elongated the pain – and the humiliation. Everyone knew what was coming. Postecoglou had been plaintively shaking his head throughout.
By the time the goal was eventually ruled out, a good four minutes later, he was waving his hand. There was also a slight glance at the away end.
Everyone surely knows what is coming at the end of the season now. Postecoglou will surely be replaced, unless he can somehow pull out a Europa League win. Except, right now, Spurs don’t seem to have any of the attributes to rally for that.
They are not a united club, as the fans also chanted “Daniel Levy out” once again. They certainly do not look a unified team, at least in the sense of a coherent idea.
This is what is really going to do for Postecoglou should he go, and what actually makes moments like the ear-cupping gesture meaningful.
Spurs do not look anything like what a Postecoglou team was supposed to be, and that after almost two years. They’re currently a rabble, easy to get at in defence, creating so little up front, and with a midfield you can almost run through.
And this, remember, is with the majority of those injured players back on the pitch.
There is something more going on here. This scoreline could have been much more than 1-0.
It is really down to Chelsea’s own deficiencies that Spurs did not suffer proper embarrassment. It really could have been four or five.
By the time Fernandez plundered a brilliant header from Cole Palmer’s typically fine cross, Chelsea were looking as if they were going to overwhelm Spurs. They’d spent so long around Guglielmo Vicario’s area.
