'When will this nonsense stop?' Chelsea's Antonio Rudiger speaks out following alleged racist abuse at Tottenham

Chelsea defender Antonio Rudiger has issued a statement decrying the rise of racism in the English game after he was allegedly the target of monkey chants during his side's win at London rivals Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday.

London's Metropolitan Police have confirmed that an investigation is underway into the matter after Rudiger appeared to confront sections of the Tottenham support and suggest that he had been the victim of racist abuse, imitating a monkey gesture. 

Writing on social media after the game, Rudiger outlined that there is no place for this type of behavior in the sport and said that it is important that these instances are noted and not swept under the rug.

"It is really sad to see racism again at a football match, but I think it's very important to talk about it in public. If not, it will be forgotten again in a couple of days (as always)," he wrote.

"I don't want to involve Tottenham as an entire club into this situation as I know that just a couple of idiots were the offenders. I got a lot of supportive messages on social media from Spurs fans as well in the last hours - thank you a lot for this. 

"I really hope that the offenders will be found and punished soon, and in such a modern football ground like the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium with dozens of TV and security cameras, it must be possible to find and subsequently punish them.

"If not, then there must have been witnesses in the stadium who saw and heard the incident. It's just such a shame that racism still exists in 2019. When will this nonsense stop?"

UK Sports Minister Nigel Adams is due to to meet Spurs representatives on Monday to discuss the alleged incidents at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, while the club themselves also released their own statement in which they deemed the alleged actions of some of their supporters as "completely unacceptable."

"Any form of racism is completely unacceptable and will not be tolerated in our stadium," the club said on Sunday night.

"We take any such allegations extremely seriously and shall take the strongest possible action against any individual found to be behaving in such a way, including stadium bans."

Meanwhile, the Professional Footballers' Association has called for an official government enquiry into the rise of racism in the English game after several such incidents have blighted the sport in the United Kingdom, as well as elsewhere, in past months.

The incident on Sunday overshadowed what had been a strong win for Chelsea and boss Frank Lampard against a Spurs side managed by former Blues coach Jose Mourinho.