Chelsea enjoyed a comfortable victory at AC Milan after former Blues defender Fikayo Tomori received an early red card.
Tomori was sent off for pulling back Mason Mount in the area, Jorginho converting the penalty.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang doubled the lead with a confident strike against his former club.
But Chelsea and England suffered a second-half blow when right-back Reece James limped off.
The win continues Graham Potter’s unbeaten start as Chelsea manager, with four victories in his first five games.
That leaves Chelsea top of Group E with seven points from four matches, but it is extremely tight with Red Bull Salzburg on six points and Milan and Dinamo Zagreb both on four points.
Bad Night For Tomori and James
Tomori has not enjoyed his reunion with his boyhood club in the past two games – after last week’s comprehensive thrashing of Milan at Stamford Bridge, the Chelsea youth product lasted just 18 minutes on Tuesday.
What looked like a tight game unraveled when Tomori put his arm around England team-mate Mount’s shoulder, throwing the midfielder so far off balance that he fell to the ground.
Referee Daniel Seibert, who was central to the fury of the home support throughout the play, deemed that it was enough contact to be a penalty and that Tomori had not attempted to play the ball, thus overruling the double jeopardy rule. Did the ride and because of that he was trying to play the ball. red card.
Tomori and the Milan players debated the decision long and hard, but in the end he had to leave the field and after a long delay, Jorginho calmly slotted the penalty away.
“I certainly don’t think the referee has had one of his better evenings,” Milan boss Stefano Pioli said.
He added: “The penalty and the red card changed everything. Chelsea didn’t need to play with a numerical advantage.
“I don’t want to review the incident, it seems too obvious. I don’t want to comment. I told the referee what I thought, I don’t speak English very well but I think he understood.”
Mount were excellent for the first 45 minutes before being substituted at half-time by Conor Gallagher, who earned a booking for arguing with Olivier Giroud after a penalty.
Potter decided to remove Mount from the firing line of both the angry home fans and card-happy Siebert – but not before the England midfielder caused Milan endless problems and showed that club and country Why is he so admired by his managers?
While his form is a boost for Gareth Southgate, it is worrying to see James walk off minutes after taking a knee to the turf in a challenge, with the World Cup less than six weeks away.
Having previously been so well stocked at right-back, Southgate is now sweating on the fitness of James as well as Kyle Walker and Trent-Alexander-Arnold, who have all been injured in recent weeks.
Four In A Row For Potter
Only two players have started all five of Potter’s games in charge of Chelsea so far – goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga and Mt.
The latter was also central in the second goal. He was played the ball in by Jorginho on the edge of the Milan area, and cleverly put it away for the first time. Raheem Sterling and Aubameyang were both on the run, and the former cleverly moved out of the way to slot the ball past Cipriani Tatarusano at his near post.
Since then it has been fairly straightforward for Chelsea to secure just their second competitive win on Italian soil in 15 attempts, the last being a 4-0 victory for Claudio Ranieri’s side at Roberto Mancini’s Lazio in November 2003.
Both sides came close to scoring in the second half, with Gallagher hitting the side netting after Tatarosano had rounded.
It was a fourth successive win for Potter, with Chelsea continuing an impressive turnaround to top Group E after four games, bottom after the second match.
