November 9th 2023.
Former Manchester United midfielder Roy Keane has criticised Chelsea despite their 4-1 win against Tottenham on Monday night, describing their performance as 'very, very average'.
The game was full of drama and VAR checks, with Spurs racing into an early lead and Dejan Kulusevski on the scoresheet. The game then changed drastically after Cristian Romero was sent off and Cole Palmer converted the subsequent penalty. Tottenham were then reduced to nine men shortly after half-time when Destiny Udogie was shown a second yellow card.
Despite being two men down, Spurs frustrated Chelsea for large spells, before Nicolas Jackson's goal in the 75th minute and two more deep into stoppage time sealed the victory. Despite the scoreline, Keane felt the Blues were far from impressive.
"I didn't really enjoy it. I thought there was too much going on, a couple of sendings off," Keane said on The Overlap's Stick to Football show. "I didn't think the quality was that great in the game. Listen, I know Spurs were up against it, but I thought Chelsea were very, very average."
He went on to criticise the general level of quality in the match, saying: "Just the whole game, when there's a couple of sendings off, it spoils the game for me. I know there's plenty of talking points but sometimes you sit down and just want to watch a good game, a good quality game."
Fellow pundit Ian Wright felt Spurs could have got something from the game if they had adopted a more defensive strategy. He said: "What I couldn't understand with Tottenham is that Chelsea – as much as they're creating chances – they're missing chances left, right and centre, so to not have the two banks of four with one in front and maybe break on them, to frustrate Chelsea when you're 1-1, was baffling to me, I couldn't understand what was going on."
Ultimately, Keane felt that the chaotic match between Spurs and Chelsea was the most exciting of the season so far, but not in a good way. He felt that it was full of too many stoppages and too much madness, resulting in a lack of quality that left him unimpressed.
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