Chelsea were absolutely flying in the first half against Tottenham tonight, with Antonio Rudiger scoring a header to add to their 2-0 lead from the first leg.
He celebrated wildly, and if you were ticking off the squares on your Rudiger Bingo, you knew what was coming next.
Sprinting back towards his own goal, the defender threw in a flying slide tackle and gave away a penalty.
After an interminable VAR delay, the right call was made. It was a foul (only just), but it was outside the box.
Usually these tackles come when Rudiger chases down a 50 / 50 and gets there first, throwing his whole body two footed to clear the ball and give the player a scare.
Much like in this instance, he usually times it right. But as always, he’s just asking for a ref or a VAR operator to make a poor decision and send him off regardless.
So why wasn’t he sent off? He should have been. Typical Chelsea rewrite.