Football: Conte, Tuchel red-carded as Kane snatches draw for Spurs at Chelsea

Tottenham Hotspur's Harry Kane scores the second goal against Chelsea, on Aug 14, 2022. PHOTO: REUTERS

LONDON (AFP) - Harry Kane snatched a 96th-minute equaliser to salvage a 2-2 draw for Tottenham in a fiery London derby against Chelsea on Sunday (Aug 14).

Both managers Antonio Conte and Thomas Tuchel were sent off after the full-time whistle for their second physical altercation of the Premier League match.

Chelsea looked set to get a new era at Stamford Bridge off to the best possible start as they twice led through Kalidou Koulibaly and Reece James.

Tottenham were well off the level required if they are to live up to hopes of challenging Manchester City and Liverpool for the title, but showed the newfound character instilled by Conte to fight back for a point.

The Italian and Tuchel were both booked in the aftermath of Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg’s first equaliser.

Tempers then flared again during a handshake after Kane nodded in the second equaliser with virtually the last action of the game.

Tuchel was not happy at Conte for not making eye contact during the handshake at full-time, which sparked another melee between both sets of coaches and players.

“It was hot from the temperature and hot between the benches and hot on the field and hot between the spectators,” said Tuchel with temperatures soaring above 30 deg C in the capital.

“There’s no hard feelings. I feel like it was a fair tackle from him and a fair tackle from me.

“We did not insult each other, we did not hit each other, we were fighting for our teams and from my side there’s absolutely no hard feelings. I’m surprised that we both got a red card for that.

“It is the Premier League and why we love it. It is emotional coaches on the sidelines.

“I think it (the red card) was not necessary. But a lot of things were not necessary today so it is another poor decision from the referee.”

Tottenham have still only won once at Stamford Bridge in 32 years in the league, but Conte will be delighted to escape with a share of the spoils against his former club.

Chelsea won all four meetings between the sides last season, three of them after the Italian took charge in November.

“In my opinion, it is better to talk about the game,” said Conte, who batted away several questions about his tete-a-tete with Tuchel. “Chelsea showed to be a really good team, but compared to last season, we did a bit better.

“The difference is clear. This team won the Champions League two years ago, last year won the Club World Cup, got to the final of the FA Cup and Carabao (League) Cup.

“There is a difference between Chelsea and Tottenham but we are here to reduce this gap. Last season we lost three times, this time we drew so it’s a little step forward.”

New Chelsea chairman Todd Boehly was welcomed by a huge banner from the Chelsea support and saw an early return on the near £170 million (S$206 million) investment in the transfer market since he sanctioned a £2.5 billion takeover to buy the club from Roman Abramovich.

Despite the drastic changes in the boardroom, on the field it was like the old times under Abramovich as Chelsea outthought, outplayed and outmuscled Spurs for the first 45 minutes.

Two of their new signings combined for the opening goal as it was from Marc Cucurella’s corner that Koulibaly found space to volley home.

Spurs strike back

Conte again resisted the temptation to start any of his six new signings, but it was not until the introduction of Richarlison just before the hour mark and a switch of formation that Tottenham began to threaten.

Kane had a glorious chance to level when he uncharacteristically dragged wide with only Edouard Mendy to beat.

Spurs did level 22 minutes from time in controversial fashion to light the spark between the two managers.

Kai Havertz looked to be clearly fouled by Rodrigo Bentancur before Tottenham broke forward and the ball eventually fell to Hojbjerg to fire low and hard past Mendy.

Tuchel reacted furiously to the decision and Conte’s overzealous celebration.

The German fought fire with fire as he sprinted down the touchline to celebrate when James thrashed home Raheem Sterling’s pass to restore Chelsea’s lead 13 minutes from time.

However, Kane had the final say as he flicked in Ivan Perisic’s corner deep into added time.

Earlier, Nottingham Forest celebrated their first home game in the Premier League for 23 years by beating West Ham 1-0.

“We were never going to treat it as a normal game, it was more than that,” said Forest manager Steve Cooper.

“You could sense since we got promoted everyone was waiting for the first home game.” The two-time European champions have made 14 new signings in a bid to maintain their top-flight status and two of those making their home debuts were the stars as Taiwo Awoniyi scored the only goal and Dean Henderson saved Declan Rice’s penalty.

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