Roberto De Zerbi refused to be drawn on late penalty claim for Tottenham | OneFootball

Roberto De Zerbi refused to discuss Tottenham’s late penalty claim in a 2-1 defeat at Chelsea and instead urged the relegation-threatened club to channel energy into Sunday’s “final” with Everton.

Spurs remain 17th and only two points above the Premier League bottom three after they squandered the chance to secure survival with a potentially costly loss at Stamford Bridge where Enzo Fernandes inspired derby delight.

Fernandez smashed in a 30-yard opener in the 18th-minute before he teed up Andrey Santos with 67 on the clock, but Richarlison provided a lifeline for the visitors with 16 minutes left.

A controversial finish occurred after Spurs captain Micky van de Ven was dragged to the floor by Marc Cucurella from a corner and even though the Chelsea full-back was issued a caution, referee Stuart Attwell ordered the set-piece to be retaken with the ball deemed not to be in play.

It infuriated Tottenham players and despite plenty of late pressure, they failed to force an equaliser and face a final-day decider at home to Everton, which De Zerbi has called more important than last season’s Europa League triumph over Manchester United.

De Zerbi said: “My focus is to prepare the next game and to make points, because Sunday is the final for Tottenham. Not Bilbao against Man Utd.

“The most important game is Sunday, because last season they played for the trophy. Now we play for something more important than the trophy, because the pride, the history of the club, the dignity are more important than the trophy.

“The trophy you can win, you can lose, nothing changes in your life. You can have one trophy more, but the most important is to keep the dignity, to keep the pride, to go on holiday like this [head up], and not like this [head down].”

After Chelsea edged a tight first half which lacked quality, De Zerbi had a triple substitution prepared when Randal Kolo Muani passed behind Rodrigo Bentancur to leave the Spurs defence exposed and Pedro Neto crossed in for Fernandez to tee up Santos to score on the turn.

Tottenham rallied when Richarlison fired in after a Pape Sarr back heel and after Maddison was denied by a superb last-ditch tackle from Jorrel Hato, the resulting corner was cut short when referee Attwell blew his whistle and cautioned Cucurella for hauling Van de Ven to the floor.

However, Attwell did not point to the spot and instead called for the corner to be retaken.

A post on X by Premier League Match Centre read: “The referee’s call of no penalty to Tottenham Hotspur was checked and confirmed by VAR – with it deemed that the action from Cucurella had ended before the ball was in play.”

Images quickly emerged on social media which appeared to suggest the ball had been in play, but De Zerbi twice side-stepped the topic.

“It’s not my business now,” De Zerbi insisted.

“Today we can speak about what you want, but we lose focus and we lose energy. My focus is to stay on the pitch.

“We have to stay alive but anyway, (Sunday) is a big day for us.”

Chelsea interim boss Calum McFarlane praised his energy-sapped team after the quick turnaround to Saturday’s FA Cup final defeat to Manchester City.

“Good to get the win,” McFarlane reflected.

“It was obvious from minute one we didn’t at times have the energy and intensity we needed. It was always going to be tough after the cup final.

“It was obviously Spurs would get more energy and we just needed to dig in for the result at the end.”