In his classical sarcastic tone, Tottenham’s Jose Mourinho directly indicated that Chelsea’s Antonio Rudiger made the most of his collision with Son Heung-min on Sunday, which was marred by the alleged racist abuse of Rudiger.
Both players tangled up as they went after the ball during the second half of the match, with Son falling to the floor. Visibly upset with the initial call, Son irresponsibly grazed his studs across Rudiger’s midsection, sending the defender to the floor.
After a lengthy VAR review, referee Anthony Taylor handed the Korean his third red card of the season, a decisive blow to Tottenham’s chances of overturning a two-goal deficit.
Son Heung-Min sees red 😳❗️ pic.twitter.com/EAeEJ47ySw
— NBC Sports Soccer (@NBCSportsSoccer) December 22, 2019
Speaking to our UK partners, Sky Sports, Mourinho took a subtle, ironic jab at Chelsea’s defender.
“I hope Rudiger will recover from broken ribs because he will have broken ribs for sure,” the manager quipped to Sky Sports. “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.”
Following their 2-0 victory, Chelsea remain fourth on the table with 32, four clear of Sheffield United. Spurs, on the other hand, sit seventh with 26 points.
Since taking over, Mourinho has guided Spurs to four, Premier League wins and two defeats in six bouts.