Jackson hat-trick ends nine-man Spurs' unbeaten start

A late hat-trick from Nicolas Jackson earned Chelsea a 4-1 win over nine-man Tottenham Hotspur that ended Ange Postecoglou's unbeaten start to the season.

In one of the Premier League's most eventful matches, two red cards and five yellows were awarded, five goals were disallowed or overturned by VAR at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, 21 minutes of added time was played and Mauricio Pochettino enjoyed a memorable return to his former club, who missed the chance to go back to the top of the league.

Spurs took the lead with only five minutes played, when Dejan Kulusevski’s strike took a deflection off Levi Colwill and beat a wrongfooted Robert Sanchez.

Both sides then had goals ruled out after VAR reviews. Spurs thought they had doubled their lead through Son Heung-min on 14 minutes after a sweeping move, but the forward was deemed to be just offside.

Then seven minutes later at the other end, Raheem Sterling scored but the goal was overturned after the Chelsea winger was adjudged to have handled the ball before finishing. Another seven minutes later, Chelsea had the ball in the net again, through Moises Caicedo's shot from outside the area. But this time, the ball went through the legs of Jackson in an offside position and the goal did not stand. 

See: Postecoglou: We go down to five men, we'll have a go!

But in the build-up to Caicedo's shot, the VAR advised referee Michael Oliver that Cristian Romero had committed serious foul play for a bad tackle on Enzo Fernandez, earning the Spurs defender a straight red card and a penalty for Chelsea.

Cole Palmer, who had scored twice from 12 yards this season, stepped up and converted the spot-kick just beyond the fingertips of Guglielmo Vicario to bring Chelsea level.

Injuries to James Maddison and Mickey van de Ven forced them off before half-time and things got even worse for Spurs 10 minutes after the break, when Destiny Udogie, who had been booked for a dangerous tackle that was reviewed by VAR for a sending-off, did see red for a second yellow card.

Despite going down to nine men and having only three outfield players left from the starting XI, Spurs continued to play a high line in defence.

After a number of failed attempts to score beyond this high line, either through poor finishing or great goalkeeping outside his area from Vicario, Chelsea finally cracked the code on 75 minutes, when Sterling timed his run perfectly before playing the ball across to Jackson to finish.

Spurs three times came close to an unlikely equaliser. Eric Dier struck a brilliant shot from a free-kick but it was ruled out for offside.

Then Rodrigo Bentancur nodded another free-kick wide before Son broke through but saw his shot saved full-length.

Eventually Jackson struck twice in stoppage time to put the result to bed and complete his treble, becoming the third Chelsea player to net a top-flight hat-trick against Spurs.

A first defeat of the season means Spurs are second on 26 points, one behind Manchester City.

Chelsea move up to 10th and on to 15 points.