Player ratings: Pochettino leads victorious return as Tottenham falls to nine men against Chelsea

In a dynamic London derby battle, Chelsea stripped Tottenham of their undefeated Premier League season start with a decisive 4-1 victory at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Throughout both halves of the game, Tottenham's aggressive offensive strategy resulted in two red cards and ultimately led to their defeat.

Remarkably, Mauricio Pochettino's return to north London was overshadowed by the turbulent events on the field, as Chelsea successfully countered Tottenham's attacks in the final stretch of the game.

Six minutes into the match, Tottenham gained the early lead. The host team carefully lured Chelsea into a defensive position deep in their own territory, enabling a swift advancement down the field. Following a skilful pass by Pape Matar Sarr, Dejan Kulusevski propelled the ball into the goal, aided by a deflection off Levi Colwill.

Chelsea nearly equalized shortly after, due to a careless throw-in by Pedro Porro. Despite Nicolas Jackson's resisted attacks by Micky van de Ven and a subsequent on-target shot, Guglielmo Vicario valiantly blocked the attempt.

Tottenham believed they had increased their lead when Son Heung-min, aided by Brennan Johnson, struck a low cross into the goal. However, the would-be goal was dismissed due to Son's exceedingly marginal offside position.

Midway into the first half, Chelsea's potential equalizer was also ruled out by VAR. Tottenham was taken by surprise with a rapid counter-attack which culminated in Raheem Sterling's close-range goal. Unfortunately for Chelsea, Sterling's hand made contact with the ball during a tackle attempt by Porro, resulting in the goal's disqualification.

Further into the match, Chelsea faced another missed equalizing opportunity. Moises Caicedo's sharply executed long-range shot found the net. However, Jackson was deemed to be marginally offside and obstructing Vicario's line of sight - a judgement confirmed after meticulous VAR review.

In an unusual twist, a follow-up VAR analysis identified that Romero interfered with Enzo Fernandez during an attempted clearance, consequenting in Romero being sent off for dangerous play and a penalty awarded to Chelsea. Cole Palmer effectively utilized the opportunity to equalize the score.

Chelsea leveraged their numerical advantage and managed a goal by Jackson, which was unfortunately overruled due to Sterling's offside position during the initial ball approach.

The second half proved equally challenging for Tottenham. Destiny Udogie earned a second yellow card for a reckless challenge on Sterling, while a saving goal-line clearance by Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg was all that prevented Jackson's free-kick finding the net.

Vicario exhibited outstanding defense with two commendable saves against Jackson and Palmer. Chelsea's attempts to capitalize on their advantage were thwarted by an untimely offside.

Marc Cucurella kept pressure on the Spurs' high line but was ultimately denied by Vicario's sprawling save.

However, 75 minutes into the match, Jackson managed to bypass the offside trap set by Sterling, finally giving Chelsea the upper hand.

In a remarkable turnaround, Spurs retaliated with a goal by Eric Dier, only for it to be disallowed due to an offside violation.

Rodrigo Bentancur narrowly missed a second goal for Tottenham, failing to properly connect with the ball during a free-kick opportunity.

Spurs frantically sought an equalizer and almost succeeded in a swift advance by Son, however a critical save by Robert Sanchez stopped them in their tracks.

With two repeated moves, Jackson added two more goals to his tally and secured the victory and three points for Chelsea.