“I’m pretty angry watching Spurs’ performance today.”
New season, zero emissions, same Roy Keane frustration and Tottenham Hotspur falling short against one of the Premier League’s top sides.
Spurs went out and gave Chelsea a good scare for the first 30 minutes, at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, today but could not break the deadlock and ended up broken men by the final whistle.
Second half goals from Thiago Silva, Antonio Rudiger and an N’Golo Kante strike that went in thanks to a massive deflection off Eric Dier saw Chelsea win 3-0 to go joint-top of the table with Liverpool.
Following the game, Roy Keane tore into the Spurs players. Sat alongside Graeme Souness and Micah Richards in the Sky Sports studio, Keane went off on one, getting progressively angrier the more he tried to get his head around the latest Spurs surrender.
“It was Men vs Boys. I couldn’t believe how bad Spurs were.
“You can have an off-day, and obviously sometimes you can lose to quality, but the lack of desire, particularly the second and the last goal, all the goals, you talk about wanting to put your body on the line…
“The game is 90-odd minutes long. This idea that a team does well in the first half, it doesn’t matter. It matters over the course of a game. You get through your difficult spells. You try and survive; you stay in the game.”
Keane next turned his fire on Spurs captain Harry Kane and what he perceived to be a lack of fight from him.
“I’ve no problem with Tottenham being short of quality, and I’m including Kane… Kane’s body language today, and his performance, oh my goodness.
“I’m pretty angry watching Spurs there today. We’ll talk about it with the goals but look at that second goal there [from Kante] – the difference between desire and wanting to win a football match, Chelsea had that.”
"I'm pretty angry watching #THFC today…" 😡
"Kane's body language and performance today – oh my goodness." 😳Roy Keane and Graeme Souness were *not* impressed with Tottenham in today's defeat to #CFC! pic.twitter.com/THzbTWKtRC
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) September 19, 2021
Once Richards and Souness had a chance to give their thoughts on Tottenham’s latest league slip-up, which drops them to seventh, Keane was back in there. Referring back to that Kante shot again, the former Manchester United captain declared:
“There’s no excuses. I’d love to ask these players, international players, why are you not going out to close down the shot? That was the danger. There’s no other danger.”
🗣 "There's no excuses, you're going to be under pressure against Chelsea but you stay in the fight, do the basics, running out, closing the ball down you learn that when you're five years of age."
Roy Keane doesn't hold back on his criticism of Tottenham pic.twitter.com/lsSYcjCAOw
— Football Daily (@footballdaily) September 19, 2021
The only small mercy, from a Spurs perspective, was that poor Jamie Redknapp was not in the studio to hear Keane take his old club to the cleaners again.