Danny Drinkwater has been trending all night after visuals of him lashing out at a 16-year-old Tottenham Hotspur‘s under-23 player, Alfie Devine, surfaced on the internet.
The 30-year-old Chelsea midfielder whose football career has been experiencing a steady nosedive since he left Leicester City to join Chelsea in 2017, featured in Chelsea’s under-23 squad that took on Tottenham‘s under-23 team on Monday night.
In the height of the Premier League 2 match, Tottenham’s Alfie Devine decided to launch a double footed tackle on Danny Drinkwater towards the last 15 minutes of the game. The former Leicester City star who joined Chelsea for £35 million, landed on the turf and immediately picked up himself and lashed out at the 16-year-old from behind.
Alfie Devine could not pick up himself after the nasty revenge from Danny Drinkwater but Tottenham‘s players helped the youngster to confront the midfielder who is 14 years older than Devine. This caused a brawl as players from both sides went against one another.
Chelsea’s legendary goalkeeper, Petr Cech, who got a surprise start in the under 23 Premier League 2 match, could be seen rushing to the spot where most of the players were gathered slugging it out against one another. The veteran goalkeeper tried to bring calm to the tense atmosphere.
After the hullabaloo was over, the center-referee showed a red card to both Danny Drinkwater and Alfie Devine in the fiercely contested London derby.
Before tempers went so high, Tottenham Hotspur’s under 23-team had already gone 2-0 up earlier in the match. Chelsea development team had to fight back until the players were able to force out a 3-2 victory.
Unfortunately for the youngsters, their effort was overshadowed by the bad example Danny Drinkwater decided to set. Even the fact that Chelsea’s veteran goalkeeper Petr Cech started the match was not as popular as Drinkwater’s attack on the 16-year-old Spurs’ youngster.
From PL2: Danny Drinkwater is sent off for a heavy challenge on his opponent – a 16 year old.
— The Football Aggregate (@footyaggregate) December 14, 2020
And yes, the goalie running in is none other than Petr Čech. #COYS | #CFC
pic.twitter.com/EnYbep7VMU
Danny Drinkwater and his fall from glory
Though Danny Drinkwater still has two years left on his contract with Chelsea, he is completely a shadow of his former self. The 30-year-old English center-midfielder who started his football career with the Manchester United youth team has allowed lack of form and controversies to take away his shine in the game of football.
Drinkwater who joined Leicester City in 2013, grew to become one of the most important players at the club winning a Premier League title with the team at the end of the 2015-2016 season.
Before he left the club to join Chelsea in 2017, Drinkwater did as well as scoring 15 goals and providing 23 assists in 218 appearances in all competitions.
But when he got to Chelsea, he found it difficult to establish himself at the club, hence, he was sent on loan to Burnley in 2019 after making just 12 appearances in all competitions for Chelsea.
He was about to establish himself at Burnley when he was allegedly attacked outside a night club on 31 August 2019. The attack made him suffer two weeks of injury. When he recovered from the injury, he became irrelevant to the team.
On 7 January 2020, Drinkwater went on loan to Aston Villa which was expected to last until the end of the 2019-2020 season. But the English midfielder was asked to leave the club On 11 March 2020 for being involved in a fight with former Aston Villa star Jota during training.
Unfortunately for him, when he returned to Chelsea, it became obvious that he was not a part of Frank Lampard’s plan ahead of the 2020-2021 season when the club’s new signing Thiago Silva was allotted his former jersey number.
Things got worse for him when coach Frank Lampard left out his name on the list of players that will execute this season’s Premier League games for Chelsea. Hence, he had to join the club’s under-23 team to keep fit.
In the midst of all these, Danny Drinkwater is serving a 20-month driving ban after admitting that he was guilty of drink-driving. The incident happened in April 2019. The football star crashed his Range Rover into a wall which caused minor bodily harm to two passengers in the car.
