Roberto De Zerbi wants Richarlison to stay at Tottenham, but revealed the striker, who has been linked with a move away, is still unsure about his future.
The Brazilian scored a last-gasp winner as 10-man Tottenham defeated Chelsea 2-1 in a pre-season friendly in Sydney, with Kevin Danso sent off just minutes after coming on as a half-time substitute.
Speaking after the game, De Zerbi said Richarlison had not clarified if he was going to depart this summer. “I don’t know, I didn’t understand well, because sometimes he said to stay, sometimes he leaves, we have to speak. Anyway, there is not any problem, he’s a lovely guy. All of us love him, the teammates, the club, the staff, because he works hard every day.”
Richarlison has less than one year left on his contract after joining Tottenham from Everton in 2022. He has struggled to find consistent form during his time in north London but De Zerbi said it would be difficult to replace his goals.
“For me he’s still an important player because it’s not so easy to find another striker as Richarlison, because Richarlison scored goals and he knows the way. The new striker, we don’t know, the other striker, we don’t know. He [Richarlison] scored 12 goals last season, not for luck, because he feels the way to score.”
Richarlison bagged a 92nd-minute winner for Tottenham against their local rivals in front of more than 80,000 fans at Sydney’s Accor Stadium. The Brazilian was the first player to react after Jamie Donley’s shot came back off the post, prodding the ball into an empty net to avert the need for a penalty shootout.
It was the first time that these two sides have met outside the UK and the match started in the spirit of a true London derby. Conor Gallagher flew into a challenge on Dário Essugo after just 10 minutes, picking up a yellow card and a fair few heckles from the largely Chelsea-supporting crowd. Jan Paul van Hecke clattered into João Pedro, while Dominic Solanke and Levi Colwill tussled off the ball.
This fixture has had its fair share of red cards over the years and there was another one to add to the list, after Danso was sent off three minutes after coming off the bench. A poor surface got the better of the Spurs defender as he failed to control a backpass, allowing João Pedro to run on to the ball and through on goal. Danso lunged headfirst into the Chelsea forward, with the referee reaching straight for his pocket.
De Zerbi said the sending off made the game harder for both sides. “It was worse for us and for Chelsea, because if you consider the condition of the pitch, very bad. And if you consider we are starting from two weeks, maybe less than three weeks, the second half you start the fatigue and playing, attacking against 10 players behind the line of the ball is tough for every team.”
De Zerbi’s side were on top in the early stages and took a deserved lead on 17 minutes when the new signing Sandro Tonali scored his first goal for Tottenham. The midfielder’s side-footed effort from outside the area took a deflection, wrong-footing the Chelsea goalkeeper Teddy Sharman-Lowe before nestling into the bottom corner.
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Spurs were only ahead for four minutes, as Estêvão Willian got the better of Andy Robertson to head home at the back post after some good work from Jamie Gittens down the left.
The game lost its competitive edge in the second half with both sides making a flurry of substitutions, before Richarlison settled it at the death.
Chelsea will now head to Hong Kong where they will be joined by Mykhailo Mudryk, who has been cleared to play again after the Football Association and the World Anti-Doping Agency resolved his appeal against a ban for failing a doping test. The Ukrainian winger was suspended for four years after failing a drug test in 2024. De Zerbi, who managed Mudryk at Shakhtar Donetsk, said he viewed the player as one of his “sons”.
“I’m very happy – he deserves to play, he’s a good guy, top player. Hopefully he can show what he suffered in the last two years, in the next season, maybe not against Tottenham, but he’s a lovely guy and he’s a very, very good player.”
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