The score does not reflect what is happening on the pitch.

11th round nuclear submarine The London derby is over and Chelsea and Tottenham made this evening unforgettable. We will tell you how the “aristocrats” engineered the defeat of the championship leaders, while the hosts resisted with nine men.

There are victories, but they still don’t believe in Chelsea

Even today the Blues give off the vibe of the rich who went overboard with Football Manager – this image will stay with them for a long time. At the same time, Mauricio Pochettino’s men approach the derby with four wins in six games. During this period, the League Cup went to Brighton and Blackburn, and in nuclear submarine The Blues beat Fulham and Burnley. Thanks to this the team rose from 14th to 11th place. It is difficult to call it just a success for the English giants, but to fight for the European Cup zone it is necessary to fight, even with the league leaders.

As for the Spurs, they played the championship without any defeat. In 10 rounds, only Arsenal and Brentford managed to take at least points from him. So even the Gunners’ formidable Manchester City and Liverpool found themselves in a position to catch up.

8 yellow, 2 red: there was more martial arts than football

Even for intense and tough nuclear submarine this is new. The teams have set a high standard for martial arts since the beginning. After the yellow signal from Destiny Udoji, Pedro Porro sharply planted his spikes into the “aristocratic” player – the Spaniard, of course, managed to play the ball, only after that he hit his opponent’s ankle with straight spikes. The defender received a red card and Cole Palmer scored from the spot.

Udoji’s second yellow came in the second half, but emotions had boiled over more than once before. 12 minutes were added to the first half – shortly before the whistle, Levi Colwill conflicted with Pape Sarr – the midfielder asked to return the ball to quickly resume the game. Both received a yellow card.

Before the break, Reece James also managed to be rude: he hit Udoji in the face with his elbow. The Chelsea team was lucky not to receive a yellow card; now it appeared more and more often.

It is quite possible that this nature of the game was influenced by a quick goal: Spurs took the lead as early as the 6th minute. Moreover, this does not follow from the overall picture of the match: the teams just looked at each other, and Kulusevski’s shot was weak. A rebound from Colwill helped: Robert Sanchez had already moved to the opposite corner and could do nothing.

4 goals disallowed – Postecoglu is outraged, Pochettino is happy

This only further underlines how brilliant a show the Londoners had. Very quickly, Ange Postecoglou’s team managed to increase their lead and Heung-Min Son scored. But the Korean was offside and so the goal was disallowed.

The match was played without center field, so we soon saw the third goal. This time Raheem Sterling scored, opening the left flank. This goal was also disallowed: the winger played with his hand after the rebound, which allowed him to get into a shooting position.

The disallowed third goal narrowly preceded Chelsea’s: Moises Caicedo launched a long-range shot past Vicario, but at the same time Porro committed a harsh move in his own penalty area. What happened next has already been described: the goal was disallowed, Pedro red, Palmer’s goal from the penalty spot.

In the 37th minute, Sterling, who was offside, set up Jackson’s shot. He closed the ball, but it didn’t matter anymore, so the fourth goal in the derby was disallowed. Hence the 12 minutes added to the first half and 9 to the second. After the match, the Tottenham manager remarked:

I felt like I was there waiting for something to happen while they studied the replay. Every episode is examined in an almost forensic manner, football is like this now, and I don’t like it. Maybe some people like all the breaks we had today, but I’d rather we played football.

Pochettino was more cautious in evaluating the VAR intervention:

This is football. We achieved a deserved victory. We live in the age of technology: we have to accept it. There is a lot happening on the pitch – you have to check.

Spurs were also effective with nine players, Chelsea’s only leverage was the goal

It is surprising that even after two penalties Tottenham blocked high and caused so many problems for the “aristocrats”. The Postecoglou gang did not persist against the goal and continued to growl on the counterattack. Yes, after Udoja’s second yellow card, they only took 3 shots, but the team managed to stop the “blues'” assault and maintained the possibility of equalizing. When Son took a shot in stoppage time, the scoreboard said neither 1:4 nor 1:3. The Aristocrats tried to increase their slim lead, and Spurs just needed one goal to be happy.

On the other hand, Chelsea did not offer anything complicated in attack: the only topic was long passes, since nine of Tottenham deployed a 4-3-1 and moved actively.

From the moment Udoji left the pitch until the guests’ second goal, 20 minutes passed. The Blues scored twice more in injury time alone. And all the goals didn’t come as a result of positioning or dominating the ball after counterattacks.

Therefore, even with an overwhelming 4:1, two caveats need to be made. First of all, this score flatters the current Chelsea. Secondly, this belittles the quality of Spurs – they could not blow over their heads, but they certainly did not fail.

With the derby, the most difficult part of the calendar for the “aristocrats” begins: in the next round they play against Man City, then they go to visit Newcastle and, after the home match against Brighton, they clash with Manchester United (plus the League Cup will continue in December).

As for Tottenham, they lost the leadership, although almost no one expected hegemony with City and Arsenal alive. It’s time to dive into the tough fight for the top 3 – the competition here is extreme.