Izuchukwu Okosi
The English FA will investigate Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel following his Sunday’s post-match comments about referee Anthony Taylor in the aftermath of the ill-tempered London derby that produced four goals in a pulsating 2-2 draw and red cards to the teams’ managers.
Tuchel was livid with the match arbiter after Harry Kane’s equaliser six minutes into stoppage time earned Tottenham a dramatic 2-2 draw at Stamford Bridge.
The German noted that Taylor should not referee Chelsea matches in future.
“I can assure you that the whole dressing room of us, every person thinks that,” he said to the media post match.
The Blues were furious that Taylor failed to penalise Rodrigo Bentancur for a challenge on fellow midfielder Kai Havertz in the build-up to Spurs’ first equaliser.
The resulting melee led to face-to-face fury between the two managers which ended with Tuchel and Spurs manager Antonio Conte receiving yellow cards.
But with tempers still running high, both men got involved in another spat at full-time and were sent off this time Conte was the aggressor with his violent handshake at the end of the game.
However, the red cards do not trigger an automatic suspension, meaning both are almost certain to be in the dug-out for next weekend’s games.
The FA will review the video footage of the incident and look at the referee’s match report before deciding on any charges. There is also a right to reply for both managers before it finally goes to a commission.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
