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With a rich vein of league form, Tottenham came into this game against a
virtually full strength Chelsea side with injuries in the squad and
tiredness in their limbs, but they found the effort for a memorable 2-1
win at the Lane over their Premier League bogey side.
It was a super performance against a team
top of the table and seemingly unbeatable over the last few weeks
(unless you are Inter Milan that is). But Harry Redknapp devised a
plan that saw his patched up team take the game to Chelsea, close them
down in vital areas and let them have the ball before they reached the
final third, where they had trouble penetrating a solid Tottenham
defence superbly marshalled by captain Michael Dawson, who must surely
be in Fabio Capello's mind and even more so when compared to the
performance of the current England central defence and Chelsea captain
John Terry.
Terry had a torrid afternoon, suffering
the wrath of the Spurs crowd, much as Campbell had on Wednesday.
Conceding a penalty and then picking up two yellow cards to make a red,
were just reward for his curtailed involvement. My own personal
view of Terry is that he is a despicable man. His arrogance on and
off the field show him to be an example of the worst what modern
footballers can turn into. He argues with referees, berates
opponents and then when he gets sent off claims he twice got the ball,
where in truth, he got nowhere near to before taking the man out of the
game. In fact, he could quite easily have been booked in the first
ten minutes, when Defoe turned him and the Chelsea defender pulled him
back by his shirt. Not that he would probably have seen it that
way.
But his frustration probably was borne of
the booing he received from the Tottenham fans and the way that the
Spurs side were playing pushing Chelsea back and not allowing them the
upper hand that they are so used to. Roman Pavlyuchenko and Defoe
linked well to provide a shooting opportunity for the Russian, but he
could not keep it down. In the seventh minute, Florent Malouda
found some space 20 yards out and drove a shot to Gomes' right, but the
Spurs keeper continued his good recent form with a dive and a good palm
away from the danger zone. When Spurs got away at the other end,
Bale was released by BAE, who lifted the ball over Paolo Ferreira and
the Welshman beat Cech to the ball as the keeper rushed to the edge of
his area, but could not get any weight on his effort to take the ball
over the goalie and it was hacked away.
Bale's next burst into the box saw him go
to ground following Mikel's challenge on him and referee Dowd waved play
on. However, when a corner resulted and Bentley put a low ball
into the box after it had been cleared, Pav missed the ball and it
bounced up in the six yard box to find Terry leaning into the ball with
his arm to concede a penalty in a manner he has got away with
previously. The quandary for Tottenham was who would take it after
a number of missed shots from the spot. Defoe grabbed the ball and
hit to high to Cech's right as the keeper went left. A priceless
lead that Spurs would need for later in the game when they would surely
tire.
Expecting a response, it was Tottenham
who pressed onwards. Pavlyuchenko made himself a yard and struck a
shot from just outside the area that was just creeping under the bar
until Cech tipped it over, then just before the half hour, Modric ran
Chelsea down the left wing and his low pass into the box found Bentley
at the near post and the Spurs winger flipped the ball up and his his
shot on the volley, but it went wide from about eight yards out.
Kaboul then had a free header from a corner and put it over the bar,
while at the other end Chelsea soon had the ball in the net, but Malouda
had been flagged offside some time before the ball crossed the line.
With two minutes to half-time, Tottenham
doubled their lead and it was the influential Gareth bale who did so.
Playing a neat one-two with Pavlyuchenko tight to the line on the left wing,
the Spurs wing-back looked second favourite to reach the ball before
Ferreira, but he used his pace and then held off the Chelsea defender to
turn him inside and strike a low right foot shot that went in at Cech's
near post to give Spurs a 2-0 lead. It was a margin which was
almost reduced before the break, as in the minute following the
re-start, Chelsea broke forward and from Zhirkov's left wing pull back,
Frank Lampost was standing on the penalty spot and hit a full-bloodied
volley that Gomes dived to his right to stretch and turn away with a
pair of strong wrists.
With former Spurs and Chelsea striker
from the 1950s and 60s Bobby Smith entertaining the crowd at the break,
there was also some amusement to be had when the teams lined up to kick
off the second half. With Chelsea having brought on Ivanovic for
the run-ragged Ferreira and Anelka for Joe Cole, when they were about to
kick off Drogba started to limp around holding his groin, which he
appeared to have injured earlier in the game fouling Bassong. He
limped off and with all three Blues subs on the pitch, it looked like
they were going to have to continue with ten men, but Dowd waited until
the Ivorian was fit to continue and then the second half started.
The pace of the game was relentless and
Roman played a pass from inside the centre circle through the Chelsea
defence for Defoe to race through on goal. He got away form the
defenders and only had Cech to beat, but he slightly telegraphed his
intentions and the keeper smothered his shot with a dive to his right
and kept Chelsea in the match. Lampost had been responsible for
two late tackles before he clattered into Huddlestone after the ball had
gone and a bust-up then kicked off with a number of players getting
involved. This helped Lampost escape censure and it was Hud and
Deco who were yellow carded for their part in what followed the former
West Ham man's challenge.
The game was getting slightly stretched
and Pav brought Cech into action with a save at his near post and then
Chelsea got away and Zhirkov almost sliced the ball over Gomes and into
the net by accident, but only resulted in it going wide for a goal-kick.
Pav once more showed good determination in getting under a bouncing ball
and getting goal-side of Terry to run at the D on the edge of the box,
but the Chelsea captain brought him down from behind and got a yellow
card from Dowd in the 64th minute. From the free-kick, Bale struck
the ball over the top, but when he broke down the left wing two
minutes later, Terry could not get to him in time and ended up bringing
him down, as the wing-back headed for the dead ball line. Dowd had
no doubt that it was a second yellow in quick succession and the
disgraced former England skipper took the long walk to the dressing room
at the Lane for the second time in his career moaning that he got the
ball twice. Watch the replays ... the camera doesn't lie in most
people's worlds.
So down to ten men and with Tottenham
rampant, surely this was the best chance for Spurs to wrap up the game,
but they failed to do so. Not for the lack of chances, but for the
lack of clinical finishing that let them down at let moments and left
the Spurs crowd on the edge of their seats. Kaboul's cross in the
68th minute came off Zhirkov and forced Cech to back-pedal to tip over
the top and then a 74th minute Defoe free-kick bounced back off the wall
to Bentley, who nonchalantly dabbed a lob over Cech who had moved
forward and did very well to get back to push the shot over the bar.
But the lack of a third goal gave Chelsea
some heart and with a quarter of an hour to go, Ivanovic stepped forward
to thrash a 25 yard shot dipping inches over Gomes' crossbar. The
game was going from end to end and when Bale's shot was saved low down
at his near post by Petr Cech, the next attack saw a great piece of
defending by Michael Dawson, who must have impressed the watching Fabio
Capello, as he slid across Drogba's shot to take the ball out for a
corner, when it looked like it might have beaten Gomes if it had got
past the Tottenham central defender in the 83rd minute. Zhirkov
almost set up a goal for Alex, but the Brazilian's header hit Tom and
bounced kindly into the keeper's arms.
Three minutes fro the end of normal time,
Gareth Bale popped up in the right hand channel to race through and
out-pace Zhirkov, getting his body between the defender and the ball and
as he tried to flick a left foot shot past Cech from a narrow angle, the
ball rolled agonisingly past the far post by inches and then with three
Spurs players breaking on one Chelsea defender, Bale crossed into the
heart of the six yard box for Pav to simply volley past the goalie, but
the striker got it all wrong and the ball went wide.
It looked like time was running out for
the ten men, but with Spurs tiring from their hectic schedule, in the
second minute of added time, Ballack broke down the right and his low,
early cross took out the Spurs defence and Lampost slid in to net his
shot with three minutes still remaining. It was a re-run of
Wednesday night and it left a nervy couple of minutes to see out, which
could have been less strenuous had Pavlyuchenko finished a move set up
by Bale and the Russian took the ball around Ivanovic in the area, then,
as Cech came out to close him down, he flicked the ball past him, taking
the shot early, but once more, he missed the right hand post by a very
narrow margin.
With some keep ball in the corner, time
was run down and another well-deserved victory was Tottenham's, leaving
Chelsea's title aspirations hanging by a thread, as Man U had beaten Man
City 1-0 earlier in the day. So, Tottenham moved back into fourth
and have a week off before they meet United at Gold Trafford.
IS an away win on the cards ? Well,
anything is possible and with the team in such good form all over the
pitch, it cannot be ruled out, but it will need another mighty effort
from the players to try and cement the fourth place berth for another
week.
purcell cole |
Chelsea
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