THOMAS TUCHEL and Antonio Conte have been SENT OFF after a heated exchange at the end of the game between Chelsea and Tottenham.
The pair first clashed following Pierre Emile Hojbjerg’s controversial equaliser with Anthony Taylor awarding both a yellow card.
They were then both SENT OFF at the end of the game after Tuchel refused to let go of his counterpart’s hand at full-time.
It came after Harry Kane equalised in the final minute to allow Tottenham to escape with a point.
Tempers flared as the game was marred by a succession of controversial decisions from the referee.
Rodrigo Bentancur and Christian Romero were both involved in incidents which should have arguably ended in free kicks for Chelsea, but instead saw the Blues conceding shortly after.
Chelsea took the lead twice in the game, the first coming courtesy of a fabulous strike from Kalidou Koulibaly and the second from a powerful Reece James effort.
However, Spurs showed their fighting spirit and refused to allow Chelsea to win the game.
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Bentancur scythed down Kai Havertz ahead of the first equaliser and even stopped playing when it appeared Taylor would call a foul.
But Taylor deemed the midfielder to have won the ball and allowed play to continue as the ball progressed towards the Chelsea penalty area, where Ben Davies laid it off to Hojbjerg to drive an effort home.
Defender Romero was caught pulling at the hair of Chelsea new boy Marc Cucurella ahead of the last-minute drama which unfolded.
Romero tugged back at the Spaniard and brought him to the floor but again Taylor opted not to take any action against the Spurs man.
The next corner which came in then saw Kane glance a header in towards the far post, as he then went off in wild celebration towards the travelling support.
The full-time whistle followed along with the heated exchange between the two managers when they were both given their marching orders.
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Another bust-up in the tunnel followed straight after when Conte barged into Mateo Kovacic, who played no part in today’s game due to injury.
This led to the Croatian arguing with Spurs’ backroom staff who also had to split Conte and Tuchel apart while still on the pitch.
Following the game, Tuchel said: “I thought when we shake hands you looked in each other eyes. He had a different opinion. It was not necessary but a lot of things were not necessary.
“We both got a red card. I think it was not necessary. Another poor referee decision.
“No problem. It’s emotional, it’s football, it’s the game, it’s the Premier League. You love it, we are emotional on the touchline.
“If we meet, we meet. It’s between a football match, it’s men (and) two competitors.”
Tuchel also lamented the official’s decisions on the two flash points of the game.
“Clear foul on Havertz and a clear offside on Richarlison,” Tuchel added.
“Edu (Mendy) cannot see the ball. And Since when can you pull hair on the football field? They check it, and they don’t do anything.
“(But) I’m the happiest coach, we dominated for 90 minutes, it was a top performance. I’m sorry for my players.”
Spurs’ boss Conte revealed his frustrations from when his side played Chelsea last season but praised his team’s character to stay in the game today.
He said: “We are working to try to reduce this gap between us and Chelsea – today was a difficult game and I think that with the ball we could do much better.
“But at the same time, the speed was good, the personality to stay in the game was good.
“We have to understand that in every game you have to try to kill the opponent in a sporting way, otherwise the opponent is going to kill you.
“When we started to understand this, I think we are ready to take another important step.
“But in only eight months I think we did a lot of steps with these players and I have enjoyed a lot of work with them.
“Last season I was really frustrated because in three games we showed zero per cent possibility to get a result against Chelsea.
“Now we played a game with a different confidence. We still have to improve a lot because there is still a difference between us and them.
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“When you win and you lift trophies, you have another confidence and you know how to play some games and for sure today Chelsea were really concentrated to play against us.
“They played a good game but at the same time I think they found a tough opponent.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
