Harry Kane grabbed an equalizer in the 96th minute to save a 2-2 draw for Tottenham from a spirited London derby against Chelsea on Sunday. Both managers Antonio Conte and Thomas Tuchel were sent off after the full-time whistle for their second physical altercation of the game. Chelsea looked poised to kick off a new era at Stamford Bridge with the best possible start as they led twice via Kalidou Koulibaly and Reece James. Tottenham were far from the level required if they were to live up to hopes of challenging Manchester City and Liverpool for the title, but showed the new character imprinted by Conte to fight back for a point.
The Italian and Tuchel were both shown yellow cards in the wake of Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg’s first equalizer.
Things then flared up again during a handshake after Kane nodded with virtually the last action of the game.
Tottenham have still only won once at Stamford Bridge in 32 years in the competition, but Conte will be happy to escape with some of the spoils against his former club.
New Chelsea chairman Todd Boehly was welcomed by a huge banner of Chelsea’s support and saw an early return on the nearly 170 million euros ($206 million) investment in the transfer market since he approved a £2.5 billion takeover to buy the club from Roman Abramovich.
Despite the drastic changes in the boardroom, it was just like the old days on the pitch under Abramovich when Chelsea outsmarted Spurs for the first 45 minutes, outsmarted Spurs and outsmarted him.
Two of Chelsea’s new signings combined for the opening goal as Koulibaly found room to volley home from Marc Cucurella’s corner.
Conte once again resisted the temptation to start one of his six new signings, but it was not until the introduction of Richarlison just before the hour and a change of formation did Tottenham begin to threaten.
Kane had a glorious chance to equalize when he dragged unusually wide with only Edouard Mendy beating.
Spurs controversially scored 22 minutes from time to fuel the spark between the two managers.
It looked like Rodrigo Bentancur made a mistake on Kai Havertz before Tottenham broke forward and the ball eventually fell to Hojbjerg to shoot low and hard past Mendy.
Tuchel reacted furiously at the decision and at Conte’s overzealous celebration.
The German fought fire with fire as he sprinted across the sidelines to celebrate James pulling in Raheem Sterling’s pass to restore Chelsea’s lead 13 minutes from time.
However, Kane had the last word as he pushed into Ivan Perisic’s corner deep in extra time.
Previously, Nottingham Forest celebrated their first home game in the Premier League in 23 years by beating West Ham 1-0.
The two-time European champions have made 14 new signings in a bid to maintain their top status and two of those who made their home debuts were the stars when Taiwo Awoniyi scored the lone goal and Dean Henderson saved Declan Rice’s penalty.
Forest had luck on their side as the Hammers had also controversially ruled out a first-half goal, hitting the bottom of the bar twice after the break via Pablo Fornals and Said Benrahma.
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But that mattered little to a cheering crowd of 30,000 at the City Ground, who were enjoying their first three points back in the big time.
(This story was not edited by DailyExpertNews staff and was generated automatically from a syndicated feed.)
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