‘That’s my opinion’: Mark Clattenburg shares whether he would have disallowed Tottenham’s first goal v Chelsea

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Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg scored a goal against Chelsea for Tottenham which has attracted controversy for a possible foul in the buildup.

A Rodrigo Bentancur challenge has attracted some ire before the Dane made it 1-1 at Stamford Bridge witha shot from outside the box.

On the Footballers’ Football Podcast, former Premier League referee Mark Clattenburg was asked whether he would have disallowed the goal.

He said that there were so many phases between the challenge and the ball hitting the back of the net that you cannot go back that far when disallowing or allowing goals.

Clattenburg’s verdict on Hojbjerg goal in Chelsea v Tottenham

He said: “This is what annoys a lot of players, it’s subjective. It is a foul. But there’s fouls all over the pitch.

“Where it is, it’s quite close to the defensive goal. But there’s so much to go on, you can actually defend it so many times.

“There’s so many phases later, you have the chance to try and break this play. How far do we go back? It has to be around the area.

“There’s a clear foul, one, two passes later there’s a goal. We can’t talk about fouls on the halfway line, or in the defensive third. You have a chance to defend that. That’s my opinion.”

Clattenburg’s view as a former referee counts for plenty as he has lots of experience officiating these sorts of huge games with so much on the line.

Chelsea had plenty of chances to stop the ball hitting the back of their net for 1-1 between the tackle and the finish, as Clattenburg says.

We cannot go back over every single incident before a goal is scored, or the game will be stopped for even longer and it will remove some responsibility from defending teams.