Tottenham boss Jose Mourinho rather unsubtly suggested that Chelsea’s Antonio Rudiger made the most of his clash with Heung-Min Son that earned a red card for the Korean.
Spurs were looking to fight back from two goals down in the second half of Sunday’s match when they were dealt what proved to be a decisive blow.
Son and Rudiger tangled when both men chased a ball deep in the Chelsea half, with the Spurs man ending up on the floor.
Clearly unhappy with the challenge that left him on the turf, Son petulantly raked his studs across Rudiger’s chest from a prone position, an act that sent the defender hurtling to the ground himself.
Following a lengthy VAR consultation referee Anthony Taylor sent Son packing, the winger picking up his third red card in 2019.
But speaking after the 2-0 defeat, Mourinho was able to see the lighter side of the incident.
“I hope Rudiger will recover from broken ribs because he will have broken ribs for sure,” the manager joked to Sky Sports.
“If he does nothing and the referee immediately gives a yellow card to Rudiger then he won’t have a reaction.
“But if he doesn’t then you can have this sort of emotional reaction. which the referee and VAR has to analyse.
“For me football is football, the Premier League will be English football and for me that red card is a strange one.
“But I don’t want to focus on that because my team lost and I have to be complimentary to my opponents because they had the better handle on the game.”
The final minutes of the match were tainted by racist chants directed at Rudiger, which caused the Spurs PA system to issue three pleas for fans to desist.
“I saw nothing, I saw the referee follow the protocol, he came to [fourth official] Andre Marriner , he came to me and Frank Lampard and told us what was happening,” Mourinho added.
“The protocol was followed and we are one of the clubs… every club is together on this situation and of course we are disappointed.”