Ange Postecoglou's honeymoon period at Tottenham is over! Winners and losers as Premier League title hopefuls brought crashing down to earth by disastrous evening against Chelsea

In an unprecedented summer, four top Premier League sides opted to spend big on new goalkeepers. Manchester United dropped €51 million (£44m/$57m) on Andre Onana, Arsenal palmed off Aaron Ramsdale in favour of David Raya and Chelsea sold two stoppers before ending up with Brighton's backup between the sticks.

Each of the aforementioned arrivals have endured mixed (at best) starts to life in the Premier League, including Sanchez. And on Monday his manager might have been left wishing that he shopped in Italy for his new goalkeeper in the summer.

Continuing a recent trend, Guglielmo Vicario was superb on Monday night - even if he did end up conceding four goals. Remaining remarkably cool under pressure when Micky van de Ven played a hospital pass to him early on, he soon followed this up with a world-class save to deny Nicolas Jackson a first-half equaliser.

He then came so close to keeping out Cole Palmer's penalty and prevented Jackson opening his account in the game early in the second half with a pair of great stops.

The Chelsea star eventually got the better of him, but Vicario - and Spurs' recruitment department - can hold their heads up high following this performance.

Yes, VAR may have made the correct decision in the end, but the time it took to get there was completely unacceptable. For five minutes, both sets of fans stood there in ignorance as three blokes in a box in Stockley Park took an age to review a string of incidents.

And, in the end, a significant portion of their work was rendered obsolete when they uncovered a red-card offence from Romero in the box.

Partway through the endless check, the travelling Chelsea fans - who would eventually benefit from the technology - expressed a sentiment that is gaining more and more traction as this crazy season's progresses: 'F*ck VAR!'.

Having already been shafted by having to travel on a Monday night, those match-going fans spent too much of their evening gazing up as various VAR messaging appeared on the four big screens at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Perhaps this would be tolerable if the interferences produced unarguable results. But it just didn't. Reece James, Destiny Udogie and Romero - for a separate offence - were all lucky to stay on the pitch after their infractions from referred to VAR. There was then another lengthy pause as Eric Dier's excellent volley was checked for offside at the end too.

It's not a new issue, of course, but it's worth repeating until we're blue in the face. Do we really need VAR?

Jackson experienced a rollercoaster evening. Early on, his direct runs in behind asked Spurs some questions. The real issues started when he was presented with chances to score.

Due to an injury to Christopher Nkunku, Jackson has - perhaps unfairly - been thrust into the spotlight this season, playing far more minutes than likely he and Pochettino expected. Coming into this one, he'd only scored twice and it's been abundantly clear in recent matches that the pressure of this limited goal return had begun to get to him.

That was evident in the first half, when the Senegal international did excellently to create space in the box before striking his effort too close to the impressive Vicario.

There were worse misses after the break, but something finally clicked when he met Raheem Sterling's inch-perfect cross to make it 2-1. Soon after he netted a near carbon copy of this goal, and, quite unbelievably, he completed his hat trick in second-half stoppage time when Vicario went down too early.

It wasn't the flashiest hat trick, and he should have scored more, but tonight will do wonders for his confidence. The raw talent is probably there, he just needs to find that killer edge.

When the VAR cogs finally stopped whirling and Romero was shown a red card, the Spurs fans warmly applauded him off the field. All you could think was, why?

Romero has been an important part of his side's backline this season, but he let himself down here. He is not the most sanguine footballer at the best of times, but whipped up into a frenzy by the febrile atmosphere in north London, he chopped down compatriot Enzo Fernandez with an entirely unnecessary, studs-up challenge in the box. He was lucky not to have been sent off even earlier too, as he petulantly kicked out at Levi Colwill.

His moment of madness left his team in the lurch against a Chelsea side low on confidence. He needs to show more maturity moving forward.

Thanks to everything that happened, not many people will have dwelled on the significance of Pochettino returning to Tottenham while the game was going on.

But for the Argentine, who was booed - though not that loudly - by his former disciples on Monday, this would've been one of the sweeter victories of his career.

It was an important one too. People have been quick to write off the Blues' chances of finishing in the top four this season but with the money they've spent, there will be pressure from those at the top of club for Pochettino to deliver some form of success during the 2023-24 campaign. This result could be the springboard they need to get amongst the big boys at the top of the table again.

It doesn't get much worse than this for a manager. Cristian Romero - out for three games. Destiny Udogie - suspended too. James Maddison - possibly injured. Micky van de Ven - definitely injured.

The problems came like London buses for Postecoglou tonight, something he's not used to. He'd previously been skipping through his honeymoon phase in the Premier League, delighting neutrals by saying 'mate' in pre-match press conference and transforming his side on the pitch in a remarkably-short amount of time.

Now, though, the real work begins. A wounded Wolves, top-six chasing Aston Villa and treble-winning Manchester City are Spurs' next three opponents and Postecoglou is going to be without some of his best players for these difficult tests.

If there still in touch with City after this run, Postecoglou might be the real deal.