Chelsea must not allow Tottenham, referee to troll them into foolish fouls
By George Perry
Chelsea received red cards in their previous three competitive games. They must not allow Tottenham or the referee to goad them into extending that streak to four.
With Eden Hazard likely out of the lineup for Sunday, Tottenham will have to find someone new for their usual tactic of hack-a-Blue. While the goal is usually to knock Eden Hazard out of the game mentally and psychologically, Spurs will hope to provoke a Chelsea player into taking himself out of the game via a red card.
Chelsea have shown over the last three games the different ways they are vulnerable to trolling. In the FA Cup final, Victor Moses followed up a garden variety yellow card with one of the year’s worst simulations. Pedro and Gary Cahill showed awful imitations of tackling to earn their sendings off earlier this month. And Cesc Fabregas earned his first booking against Burnley by sarcastically applauding a referee’s decision that – unusually – went Chelsea’s way.
The Blues showed in the May 2016 game that they can withstand Spurs’ worst hacking and attempted eye-gouging. However, in addition to resisting the urge to exact revenge against Tottenham, Chelsea must guard against feeling aggrieved by the officiating.
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Victor Moses may be Tottenham’s best target. Moses is prone to frustration, which may be rampant given the opponent and the official. The referee for Sunday’s match will be the same as the FA Cup final: Anthony Taylor.
Taylor is keen to Moses’ acting. If Tottenham target Moses without getting a call, while Chelsea attract whistles at nearly every touch, Moses may try to manufacture a foul as he did against Arsenal. Anthony Taylor will not hesitate to open his book for the wing-back if he goes down too easily.
Moses and Fabregas showed a tendency to take the rules into their own hands in more subtle ways than simply returning the hack. Simulation and sarcasm are two sides of the same coin, and have the same result as a cynical foul.
"If you see the last season when we were champions, we didn’t get a red card until the FA Cup Final and now we have had one in the Community Shield and against Burnley. When we are down to 10 men it is really difficult so we have to learn from this and hopefully we can do something on Sunday. – Cesar Azpilicueta, Evening Standard"
Chelsea cannot afford to play even a minute against Tottenham with 10 men. Nor can they afford to lose any more players for Leicester, Everton or Arsenal. Eden Hazard and Tiemoue Bakayoko should return during that run of games. They should be able to take their rightful place in a proper XI, not fill the gaps from another round of absences.
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When Chelsea have their next London derby against the Gunners on 17 September, Antonio Conte deserves to have his entire squad to choose from. Who knows, he may even have some new players. He should not have to spend his time trying to dig Chelsea out of an even deeper hole because his players cannot avoid going into Anthony Taylor’s book.