Thomas Tuchel’s comments on referee Anthony Taylor to be investigated

The FA will look into the comments made by Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel on referee Anthony Taylor

According to Football.London, The FA will look into and investigate the comments made by Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel on referee Anthony Taylor in the aftermath of a thrilling London derby against Tottenham Hotspur.

Tuchel was visibly angry on the touchline during the game and also claimed during the post-match interviews that both the Spurs’ goals should not have stood.

Both incidents took place in the build-up to the respective Tottenham goals, both coming as equalisers, the second one being the last meaningful kick or head of the football in the game.

I can’t understand how the first goal is not offside, and I can’t understand when a player is pulled by their hair, the other player stays on the pitch. Pull someone else’s hair, stay on the pitch and attack the last corner.

Chelsea led through Kalidou Koulibaly’s volley in the 19th minute from a Marc Cucurella corner. The first controversial point in the game arrived in the 68th minute when Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg scored with a long-range low shot in the bottom corner.

Two things that happened in and around the goal that disturbed Tuchel and Chelsea players. The first was the potential foul on Kai Havertz by Rodrigo Bentancur 40 seconds before that equaliser. Second was Richarlison, from an offside position, blocking the view of Chelsea keeper Edouard Mendy to get across that Hojbjerg shot.

Chelsea right to feel wronged

There was an angry confrontation between Tuchel and Spurs’ boss Antonio Conte in reaction to that goal as well (the first of their two-time touchline battle in the game).

The Blues regained the lead in the 77th minute through Reece James, fed in by Raheem Sterling. But Tottenham responded very late in second-half injury time, via Harry Kane’s near post header from the corner.

Now, before that corner was taken, Christian Romero appeared to have pulled Cucurella’s hair in the Chelsea box. VAR did look at the incident and deemed it as not serious enough to send the former off.

Post the full-time whistle, Tuchel and Conte went on to have the ‘handshake’ confrontation, leading to both managers’ receiving the red card. The Chelsea boss, who is now already on a touchline ban, will face an investigation on things he said about the referee.

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If we look at the incidents objectively, the referee and the VAR did make mistakes, especially for the Romero incident where he was forcefully pulling Cucurella’s hair. It will be interesting to see if referee Taylor and VAR Mike Dean face any penalties for their mistakes (it does not happen though generally).