Xabi Alonso has told Cole Palmer that he must learn from the red card that compounded Chelsea’s 2-0 defeat by Tottenham at Stamford Bridge. Spurs claimed their first win at the ground since 2018, helped by an own goal from Mike Penders and a late strike from Mathys Tel. It was a rare victory in west London for Tottenham, who had won only one of their previous 34 visits there.
Palmer was dismissed after 80 minutes for a second yellow card, shown after a late tackle on Conor Gallagher. Chelsea were already a goal down at that stage, and the playmaker’s first booking had come during a clash with Mateus Fernandes. Alonso accepted that the sending-off could be a lesson for the 24-year-old. “Absolutely,” he said. “I haven’t seen them [back] on TV but as far as I have been told probably he [the referee] got it right. We need to have this maturity to deal with difficult moments. When you have conceded for 1-0, still probably it was 15-20 minutes to go. I need to check the action to talk with Cole but it is one to learn for the future for sure.”
Alonso said he did not have wider concerns about Palmer’s character, even though the Chelsea No 10 could also have been sent off against Everton last weekend. “Today, for sure, yes, but it is not a concern,” Alonso said. “It is a moment to keep calm, a moment to keep mature, for everyone.”
Chelsea also had to cope without João Pedro, who picked up an unspecified injury in training on Friday. Alonso said the forward had “a lot of fluid” and that the club must wait for tests to understand the seriousness of the problem, with no return date yet known.
Penders endured a difficult full Premier League debut, punching a corner into his own net. Alonso defended the goalkeeper, saying: “We win, we lose together. We support Mike and we support the rest of the team. He will learn from that.”
Tottenham manager Roberto De Zerbi, meanwhile, hoped the result could act as a springboard. “Why not?” he said. “There is no reason why not. I can’t understand why we have to ask this question. Because we won two games in a row. But we didn’t win nothing. We want to improve, improve and improve, to be better game by game, week by week. I think we have suffered enough.”