Hey, remember that one time when Tottenham Hotspur went to Stamford Bridge and ended up beating Chelsea while also sending them down to ten men? That was awesome. But it could’ve been even MORE awesome, if Chris Kavanaugh were better at his job.
According to the Premier League’s monthly Key Match Incidents (KMI) report, match official Kavanaugh made two key mistakes during this match, with both of them benefiting Chelsea at Spurs’ expense — the lack of a red card shown to Cole Palmer for his “interaction”
(and I use that term loosely) with Matheus Fernandes in the 70th minute, and the lack of a penalty awarded to Tottenham after Moises Caicedo fouled Dominic Solanke in Chelsea’s box in the 84th minute.
Are we surprised? Of course we’re not surprised. The only surprising thing is that Tottenham won the match regardless of the two incorrect officiating decisions.
Let’s start with the Palmer incident. In the 70th minute, Fernandes tackles Palmer in transition after what was deemed a fair tackle by Micky van de Ven on Moises Caicedo. Fernandes goes to ground and palms the ball away after the whistle had been blown. Palmer, having taken offense at the challenge, then charges up to Fernandes and shoves him to the ground while also making head to head contact.
Here’s a reminder of what happened.
Palmer was given a yellow card. According to the KMI, it should’ve been red, though they agreed that VAR was correct not to step in considering Kavanaugh had already awarded a yellow card.
The on-field no red card decision was deemed incorrect, 3:2. The majority felt that Palmer’s action on Fernandes was clear contact to the head as well as unnecessary, dangerous and made with excessive force. Two panellists supported the on-field call as they viewed the action as aggressive with no excessive force. All panellists supported the VAR’s decision to not intervene and support the referee’s call given that a yellow card was awarded on-field.
Palmer was issued a second yellow late in the match after stepping on Conor Gallagher’s ankle, but he really should’ve gone sooner. “Whoopsie-Daisy,” says the PGMOL!
The other incident was one that I actually couldn’t find a highlight of online — an incident that took place in the 84th minute, three minutes before Mathys Tel scored Spurs’ second goal of the match. During a Tottenham corner kick, Caicedo appeared to take down Dominic Solanke at the back post as the ball was coming in. The ball landed nearby where Solanke would’ve been had he not been rugby tackled, and Penders was able to collect the chance and restart play.
Here’s how the KMI described the decision:
The on-field no penalty call was deemed incorrect, 3:2. The majority felt Caicedo was persistently holding Solanke whilst facing away from the ball and impacting the ability of the opponent to progress. Two panellists supported the on-field call as they felt both players are engaging and Caicedo is twisting to look at the ball. The VAR decision to not intervene was supported, 3:2.
Honestly, once I looked up the incident on the full match replay I remember being annoyed that this wasn’t given at the time, but chalked it off to home cookin’ – the kind of call that you really should get but that you’ll never see given against Chelsea at the Bridge because, y’know, REASONS. The KMI, however, clearly saw differently, and it’s also a touch infuriating that they supported VAR’s decision not to intervene. (What precisely is the point of VAR if it won’t intervene when there are uncalled fouls?) “Another whoopsie-daisy, lol sorry” says the PGMOL.
At some level this post is just sour grapes — after all, even without these two incidents going against Spurs, they still managed to pull out a 2-0 win, their first since 2018 and only the second Spurs league win at the Bridge in Premier League history. We won, so what are we complaining about, right?
That said, it’s still a bit galling that both of the major incorrect incidents identified by the KMI both went against Spurs and both would’ve been even more consequential. Who knows, if Kavanaugh were good at his job we might have won that match 4-0 instead of 2-0 and be in positive goal differential right now. Small margins can make a big difference over the course of the season, and it continues to be extremely galling that obvious decisions aren’t made or overruled when they happen, and that Spurs haven’t had a penalty called in their favor since Ange Postecoglou was in charge.
What I’m saying is that Premier League match officials and VAR are both still bad. Have a happy Wednesday!
