Gary Neville destroys ‘ludicrous’ Chelsea star and claims Blues deserved TWO reds vs Tottenham; Joao Pedro update
Gary Neville claims Chelsea should have had two red cards against Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday evening, as the Blues suffered an incredibly rare loss to their London rivals at Stamford Bridge.
Spurs recorded just their second victory in their last 35 visits to Chelsea to move clear of the relegation places, while the loss left Xabi Alonso’s sit fourth after suffering their third defeat in eight games under their new head coach.
The west London clash was a game riddled with controversy in awful conditions for football, with Cole Palmer picking up a second yellow to see red when Neville felt he should have been sent off for his first caution.
The Sky Sports pundit was also critical of referee Chris Kavanagh for not giving Morgan Rogers his marching orders for hacking former Chelsea star Connor Gallagher down in stoppage time at the end of the match.
The Blues forward was shown yellow for his wild challenge on Gallagher but Neville believed the sanction wasn’t enough, telling viewers while on commentary: “I think that’s a red. I do. He’s absolutely wellied him with no intent. That’s ludicrous from Rogers.”
Neville also called for Alonso to get a grip on his players, adding: “They have lost it. Xabi Alonso needs to get them off.”
Mike Penders’ disastrous own goal and a late Mathys Tel solo effort were enough to seal a hugely impressive win for Tottenham, who also benefitted from Palmer’s red card with 10 minutes remaining.
In between the two goals, Palmer was sent off after picking up two bookings, but Neville also believed the midfielder was lucky not to receive a straight red.
For his first yellow card, the 24-year-old England international barged into Mateus Fernandes on the floor and knocked him over as the Spurs player attempted to stand up, following a blatant hand ball.
It was this moment that sparked a 14-man brawl between the bitter London rivals and saw Gallagher, Micky van de Ven, Fernandes and Palmer all booked.
However, Neville believed the latter was lucky not to see red as he said: “Palmer’s reaction was silly.
“He’s asking for trouble, that’s not great. He’s asking for trouble. That’s not great from Cole Palmer. No idea why he’s doing that.
“He was no doubt [sailing close to the wind]. I think that could be a red. Into the chest you’ll get away with it but Fernandes is on the ground. He’s got no way to defend himself. It’s a stupid thing to do.”
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Alonso questions Chelsea discipline; Joao Pedro injury update
Meanwhile, following the loss, Alonso admitted he wants his Chelsea team to focus on emotional control and confirmed he will discuss the sending off with Palmer internally.
He said: “Yes we need to work and we need to improve on that. I think we spoke yesterday about those things and to know that in those situations that one first yellow card can be decisive as we have seen. It is a process of the maturity of the team and of the individual players as well.
“We think [up until] now we haven’t received any red card and we need to continue that way because we need to have this maturity to deal with difficult moments, when you have conceded 1-0, still probably was 15-20 minutes to go, so we have to be on the way.
“I need to check the action to talk with Cole but it is one to learn for the future for sure.”
Chelsea suffered a massive blow before the contest, when Alonso revealed leading striker Joao Pedro had suffered an injury and would miss the game.
The Blues are expecting to find out the severity of the issue on Sunday, with Alonso telling reporters, without specifying what the injury actually is: “We don’t know yet because he has a lot of fluid.
“He felt it yesterday and we need to wait probably until tomorrow to do the test and to know the whole situation and the whole seriousness of the injury. We will know soon enough.”
