Tottenham Hotspur received a deadly double injury blow in the first half of their Premier League 4-1 defeat by Chelsea. Ange Postecoglou’s side took the lead inside six minutes through Dejan Kulusevski’s deflected effort that wrong-footed Robert Sanchez.
Micky van de Ven pulled up clutching his hamstring after a footrace with Chelsea striker Nicolas Jackson and was replaced by out of favour Eric Dier. Within minutes of this star man James Maddison went to ground untouched in the box, and also limped off before half time to be replaced by Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg.
Chelsea hit back in a frantic first half when Enzo Fernandez was fouled in the box by Cristian Romero and Cole Palmer finished from the spot. Romero was given a deserved red for the challenge, and Spurs would lose their second centre back 10 minutes later.
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Reflecting post-match on the injury of Maddison, Postecoglou appeared to alleviate any long-term fears. ‘He got a knock on the ankle, we were down one man already,’ he said. ‘It made sense to make a couple of changes at that point.’
