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Jose Mourinho Slams Antonio Rudiger After Heung-Min Son Red Card vs. Chelsea
December 22, 2019
Tottenham Hotspur manager Jose Mourinho has hit out at Chelsea defender Antonio Rudiger after Heung-Min Son was sent off in the Premier League clash between the two teams Sunday.
Following a VAR review, Son was given his marching orders after a tangle with the Blues star as he swiped his feet towards Rudiger's stomach.
The dismissal compounded what was a dismal day for Tottenham, as they were beaten 2-0 by their London rivals on home soil. Afterwards, Mourinho said his team's performance was below par and joked about the reaction of Rudiger in the incident that led to Son's dismissal, per Sky Sports (h/t Goal):
"I hope Rudiger will recover from broken ribs because he will have broken ribs for sure.
"If he does nothing and the referee immediately gives a yellow card to Rudiger then he won't have a reaction. But if he doesn't then you can have this sort of emotional reaction, which the referee and VAR has to analyse.
"For me football is football, the Premier League will be English football and for me that red card is a strange one. But I don't want to focus on that because my team lost and I have to be complimentary to my opponents because they had the better handle on the game."
Sky Sports shared footage of the tangle between the Tottenham and Chelsea players:
Here is more of what Mourinho had to say following the defeat:
Although the red card gave Spurs a mountain to climb, they had been outplayed by Chelsea when they had 11 men on the field.
Willian netted a brilliant opener for the Blues before converting from the penalty spot on the brink of half time, giving Chelsea boss Frank Lampard arguably his biggest win since taking charge of the club in the summer.
The loss for Mourinho represents a reminder of the difficult job he has to do at Spurs. That's unlikely to be made easier by the fact that he'll be without a suspended Son for the next three games.
Per OptaJose, it's not the first time the South Korea international has been sent off this year:
Although Mourinho clearly wasn't pleased with the call to send off his star forward, James Benge of Football.London believes the right decision was made:
Son has already had one red card rescinded this season following his challenge on Everton midfielder Andre Gomes, although it appears unlikely the officials would overturn this dismissal given it was subject to a VAR review.
The match at Tottenham was marred by alleged racist abuse from the crowd towards Rudiger. In a statement on the club's official website, Spurs say "we are now conducting a thorough investigation which will include liaising with Chelsea and their players for their observations."