Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville both think that Michael Oliver was right to send off Tottenham defender Cristian Romero in the first half of one of the most incredible games of the season. The teams went into the break level at half-time but the 1-1 scoreline did little to describe any of the drama on show.

After taking the lead and being denied a second shortly after for a marginal offside against Son Heung-min the game turned on a tackle from Destiny Udogie. The Italian wasn't sent off despite Neville's claims that he was lucky to stay on the pitch but Spurs were soon down to 10 men.

Romero, who had appeared to turn a page this season with less moments of madness, saw a straight red for a foul on Enzo Fernandez inside the box that handed Chelsea an equaliser through Cole Palmer. The decision took an age to get to though after checks for an offside against Nicolas Jackson following Moises Caicedo's left-footed strike.

"Absolutely ridiculous," Carragher said during the interval. "To put a challenge like that in the penalty box. That’s a challenge I would have made 20 years ago. Those days are well gone. Those days have gone by saying I won the ball first and I couldn’t control myself afterwards. He was out of control, excessive force, definite red card."

Neville, who was a constant narrator of the unpredictable events unfolding at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, was firmly in agreement with his fellow pundit. "Romero you, you," he started in disbelief. "Honestly, this is mayhem. That’s not a penalty, that one is. That’s a penalty for me and a bad challenge. This is incredible."

The former Manchester United and England defender added: "I’m going with the fact that I think it is a penalty to Chelsea, irrespective of whether this goal is allowed. I think if this goal is disallowed, they should go back and look at the Romero challenge and give a penalty. I think it’s a penalty."

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He continued: "That’s a penalty. He plays the ball, but I don’t know why he’s followed through the way he does. It’s a mad challenge from Romero - he doesn’t have to follow through like that and but his studs right into Fernandez’s shin - that is a penalty.

"If you go back to Curtis Jones’ one a few weeks ago which I thought was harsh, this one is a lot worse. For those of you watching at home thinking he gets the ball and it’s a natural follow through, trust me, as a defender that is not a natural follow through, that is not what you do. He’s gone over the top as he moves through the ball.

"Yeah, it’s a red." Romero was perhaps fortunate to even be on the field at this stage having kicked out at Levi Colwill during an earlier incident. "He could have gone earlier, I was 50/50 on it," Neville explained. "I have no sympathy for him. He makes wild challenges, he’s a great defender, he’s passionate, he’s fiery, but he knows every single time what he is doing and it’s the wildest of challenges.

"They have just shown it in the stadium and they are not happy because they think he’s got the ball, which he did, the Spurs fans behind that goal are going crazy." Tottenham then had to deal with Micky van de Ven going off with a serious hamstring injury and James Maddison being forced off as well.

Udogie then made things even worse for Spurs 10 minutes into the second half as he received a second yellow card himself, putting Ange Postecoglou's side down to nine for the remainder of the game.