Tottenham Hotspur goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario has hailed the impact of two of his teammates against Chelsea last year.
The Italian goalkeeper was speaking after one of the most ridiculous Premier League matches in recent memory.
The match started like many have at Spurs under Ange Postecoglou this season, with Dejan Kulusevski’s deflected strike putting the home side ahead.
Son Heung-min thought he had doubled his team’s lead, but that was the first of five disallowed goals in the first half alone.
It was a fiery affair and the first big talking was Destiny Udogie’s two-footed lunge on Raheem Sterling.
He was only shown a yellow card, but things quickly unravelled for Tottenham at that point.
Chelsea eventually equalised through a Cole Palmer penalty that Guglielmo Vicario nearly kept out after Tottenham teammate Cristian Romero was sent off.
MORE TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR STORIES
Ange Postecoglou was forced to make big changes as Micky Van de Ven and James Maddison were substituted with injuries.
However, he didn’t change his style of play which ultimately cost his team, but earned his side a standing ovation at the full-time whistle.
Vicario praises two Tottenham teammates after Chelsea defeat
Asked about the performance at the end of the match, Vicario said: “We have to be proud of everyone. Big effort by Pierre, big effort by Eric, by everyone who goes inside.
“Skippy, Rodri, Eme – it was not easy to manage the situation or change so many roles. But we have a big mentality.
“We can’t go over this kind of situation, we have to be proud of ourselves tonight and then we have to go again.”
Eric Dier and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg were paired at centre-back following Romero’s red card and Van de Ven’s injury.
They were asked to play an incredibly high line and if Chelsea were more composed they would have been caught out even more than they already were.
However, Vicario – who was phenomenal despite the scoreline – has praised the Tottenham pair for their resilience against Chelsea.
Dier has been out in the cold under Postecoglou and Hojbjerg has been linked with moves away in January.
They both showed they have a role to play at Spurs still and Dier was very unlucky not to score a magnificent volley immediately after Chelsea went 2-1 up.
On another day that changed the course of the game once again but he was marginally offside following Rodrigo Bentancur’s flick-on.