Rocha was doing well in his battle against Drogba, who towered over him.  The Spurs man showed he can jump well, with some good aerial challenges against the strong Chelsea forward, but he also nipped around the Ivory Coast international to pinch the ball away from him on a couple of occasions.  He frustrated Drogba into throwing the ball away after winning a free-kick for a foul on him and the ref pulled out a yellow card.

With Chelsea coming set-up to keep Tottenham out in the early stages of the game, they created little and Robinson had a quiet half really.  After the break, it was Spurs again who started the brighter.  A corner fell to Chimbonda, who hit a shot that Cech saved at the Park Lane end and the Czech keeper had to be smart to get down to a Malbranque effort to keep it out.

With ten minutes of the second half gone, Diarra broke from right back and burst between two Tottenham players to knock the ball down the line to Shevchenko.  Having taken the ball inside the penalty with one touch, he spun to hit a left footed shot that arrowed into the opposite top corner of the net, leaving Robbo helpless.  Sitting right behind it, the shot was only going to be a goal if it went in there and perhaps it was one of those which might have ended up in row Y, but it didn't.

It seemed like the 3-1 lead that Chelsea clawed back would be the turning point of the match and six minutes later, Drogba chested the ball down for Wright-Phillips to strike a high bouncing ball past the Spurs keeper for 2-0 from the other side of the box.  Dawson almost got to the diminutive winger, but having been drawn out of the back four to make a challenge, he was not back to pick up his man and nobody covered for him.

The tiring programme of games Tottenham have had lately seemed to be taking it's toll.  A few players looked jaded and Defoe's introduction for Malbranque saw Spurs play with three up front and three at the back.  it was a risky change, but

Lennon played a cross in, but Keane couldn't get it under control, while the ball dropped to Zokora, but he hit it wide.  Wright-Phillips did the same at the other end before Jermain Defoe played the ball in to Berbatov, who stepped past a defender and as he prepared to shoot, Carvalho brought him down just eight yards out from goal.  It was as clear a goal scoring opportunity as you would see ... one he scored from in the first game; so, how it was not deemed a red card offence, I cannot conceive.  The Chelsea defender, who spent a large amount of the game on the floor and whingeing at Keane, only picked up a yellow card and Keane picked up the ball to slide it past Cech, despite the best efforts of Terry to use gamesmanship to delay the taking of the spot-kick.  The Blues keeper picked up a yellow card for kicking the ball away after Keane tried to hurry the restart and Chimbonda had got one too for a scuffle with Drogba in the lead up to the penalty being taken.

It was all set for a thrilling last ten minutes until Chelsea brought out the methods which do nothing to endear them to anyone.  While Manchester United play thrilling attacking football, with their aim to outplay the opposition (with Ronaldo's antics one of the few draw-backs), Mourinho's men employ the same ways that Porto used against Celtic in the 2004 UEFA Cup final, which brought wide-spread condemnation.  Feigning injury, time-wasting, harassing the referee and intimidation of the opposition players.  They are a good enough team not to have to do that and while it might be a back-handed compliment to Tottenham that they felt they had to kill off the game in this manner, they will win few friends outside SW25 and the chants of "Next year you'll be supporting Man U" to their fans might not be too far off the mark.  The arrogance and pettiness of their phone0in callers certainly indicated to me that they have little good to say about anyone other than themselves.

Drogba ran his studs down Rocha's heel without the referee Atkinson giving a free-kick to Spurs nor Drogba his second yellow card.  It was astounding that such a weak performance from a referee, who rarely got a decision right, should be considered by those in power as suitable for such a big game.

Tottenham's best chance to get something out of the match came with five minutes of normal time remaining, as the ball came in from the right wing and neither Keane nor Berbatov were placed to get near the low cross.  The four minutes of extra time saw Dawson join the players up front and everything was aimed at his head, making it easy for Chelsea to defend.  A couple of scrambles saw the ball not sit up for the Tottenham front men and the final ball was not accurate enough, as it had failed to be for most of the night.

Spurs had enough possession and enough opportunities to play the ball in to their forwards, but one touch too many or poor delivery, especially from corners and free-kicks, failed to give Chelsea enough difficult situations to defend.  It took two cracking goals to win it for the visitors, but it will hopefully be another step in the learning process for the Tottenham team.

THE HEATHROW SPUR