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Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur played out one of the craziest Premier League games of recent on Monday night as the Blues ran out as 4-1 winners, but that’s only a snippet of the chaotic drama that unfolded.
There were ten yellow cards, two red cards and nine VAR checks across a pulsating 111 minutes of football as Spurs continued to play a high line with nine men and Mauricio Pochettino’s side struggled to break them down.
Once Nicolas Jackson eventually broke through their depleted back line in the 75th minute, however, the floodgates opened and the Senegalese helped himself to a hat-trick.
Whilst the scoreline suggests the visitors were comfortable, they were anything but and if Cristian Romero and Destiny Udogie hadn’t been so recklessly sent off, the outcome of the contest could have been a lot different.
Jackson turned out to be the hero on the night, but there were a few notable villains in Blue.
Levi Colwill’s performance against Tottenham
Pochettino chose to start Levi Colwill ahead of Marc Cucurella at left back in an attempt to deal with the dangerous Dejan Kulusevski.
Colwill was making his fifth appearance of the campaign in that position and he would endure a night to forget.
He played the role of a villain in Kulusevski’s opener, affording the Swede too much space on the right channel, before allowing him to cut in on his left and hit a strike that deflected off his back and beyond the despairing Robert Sanchez.
That moment would foreshadow how the rest of his night would plan out as he was nearly sent off on the stroke of half-time following a heated exchange with Pape Matar Sarr.
The 20-year-old, who was given a yellow card for the clash, was then substituted at the break with Cucurella playing the second half at left-back.
Colwill let the occasion of a heated London derby get to him and when asked about his decision to substitute him at half-time, Pochettino said after the game:
“Yes, because I think after the yellow card he lose a little bit his focus and it is too much risk.”
The former Brighton & Hove Albion loan star wasn’t the only player who let the occasion get to him on the night, however, as Axel Disasi didn’t have his best game in Blue.
Axel Disasi’s statistics vs Tottenham
In the absence of Benoit Badiashile, who has now returned from a hamstring injury, Disasi has started in all but one Premier League fixture for Chelsea since arriving from Monaco in the summer.
He got the nod over his French compatriot against Spurs, however, on the evidence of his performance on Monday night, he could be at risk of being dropped for Badiashile or Pochettino could shuffle Colwill next to Thiago Silva and put Cucurella at left-back.
Once labelled as a “disaster” by talkSPORT pundit Andy Jacobs following his performance in the 3-1 defeat against West Ham United, Disasi didn’t paint himself in a positive light once more against Spurs.
Awarded the lowest Sofascore rating (6.5) out of all the Chelsea starters, the £80k-per-week dud didn’t look comfortable on the ball, costing his team in possession by losing it ten times and misplacing three of his six attempted long balls.
His rawness and lack of positional sense from a defensive standpoint were taken advantage of by Tottenham in the early stages and would have been exploited further if they weren’t reduced to nine men.
The 25-year-old, who only made one tackle in a pulsating contest, has previously been criticised by William Gallas for not being at the required level in the Premier League.
The former Chelsea star said: “He has to improve a lot”.
Following his display against Tottenham, Gallas was correct to make that statement, and he could face the axe from Pochettino’s starting eleven if he doesn’t step it up moving forward.
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