Chelsea (away) 14.08.2022

A trip to Stamford Bridge is never something to look forward to.  A crap away section, tucked away in a corner, surrounded by home fans and an unenviable record, despite the inevitable battle against 14 men with all the decisions going the home team’s way.  Penalties, Silva falling over to get a Tottenham goal disallowed, the ball not crossing the line … need I go on ?  Well, today was different.  Not everything went the home team’s way, although they should have won this game at a canter, but missing glaringly good goal-scoring chances and not being able to cope with the very late charge that Spurs made in added time in the second half saw some of the pains of the past lifted as Conte’s side play with a new resolve and don’t give up. 

When the game started, an early free-kick given when Koulibaly went through the back of Kane was wasted, as Sonny floated it way over the bar.  Spurs were pressing hard and won the ball for Kane to scoop a pass over the home defence, but Royal had to stretch to drag it into the middle and could only find Mendy’s arms.

With Chelsea having most of the possession, Spurs were unable to work their way out of their own half.  Bentancur made a good run up the left wing, beating three men before his pass inside to Son got caught under the forward’s feet.  The home side broke forward, as Sterling took a pass into the right-hand channel in the box and back-heeled it to Havertz, whose shot across Lloris was touched just wide of the far post.  When the corner came in, it was Koulibaly who was standing alone to hit the corner straight past Hugo on the volley from ten yards out at the far post to give the home team the lead.  It was poor defending from Tottenham that he was given so much room, but very good technique for a defender to control the powerful volley the way he did.

A quick free-kick taken just inside the Spurs half sent Ryan Sessegnon away on the left, looking as though he may have been offside, but play went on and his low shot was smothered by Mendy and eventually came off Ryan for a goal-kick.  Tottenham’s passing was not quite finding the target and the ball kept coming back at the Spurs goal, with the same happening when we broke down Chelsea attacks.  Another corner went to Koulibaly from a flick on and this time his falling volley was skied over the top.

After the drinks break Chelsea wanted a penalty when Sterling’s shot was blocked by Hojbjerg, who had turned his back with the ball bouncing up, but he couldn’t have had his arms closer to his body.  Nothing was given, but a left-wing free-kick gave Chelsea the chance to put the ball into the danger zone, although it was well defended by Spurs. For all the possession and keeping Spurs pinned in our own half, the home side didn’t have too many efforts on target.  Mount bent one from 20 yards over the bar, just before he spat on Dier, which the Spurs defender accepted too readily as an accident.  The heat that had built up during the day resulted in the play being undertaken at a slower pace than might have been usual, but when Spurs cleared a corner and Son looked to break quickly, he was hauled back, two handed by the shoulders as James was too slow to keep pace with him.  Fouls like this are more than a yellow, which he did get waved at him, but worse, any advantage we had disappeared, and Chelsea won a corner from regaining possession. The tactic Tuchel employed was obvious, get three men around Son as quickly as possible and get Koulibaly to batter Kane.

Jorginho floated a ball to the right in the box, but Loftus-Cheek missed his header, looking like he wasn’t sure what to do in that position.  Spurs held the ball in the Chelsea for a while for the first time and the half-time whistle saw the teams trudge off, with Spurs one goal behind, but having done a lot of chasing the ball. A couple of minutes into the second half Kane tried to find Son in the box with a pass to the left from infield just right of centre, but it pushed him too wide and he was unable to get any power behind his shot that the keeper saved easily.

Kane was bundled off the ball from behind, with Taylor waving play on, while at the other end Loftus-Cheek went over under the same sort of challenge from Davies and got a free-kick.  Only when Havertz pushed Sessegnon over near our own left corner flag did the linesman give a free-kick with no attempt made the get the ball.  Mount’s mis-hit cross was pushed over the bar by Lloris, as it looked like it was going to be one of those days when everything was going the wrong way.  N’Kante has both arms around Son’s waist when the ball was played up to him, but, again, a bump on Mount gave Chelsea a free-kick.

Richarlison came on for Sessegnon to make his Spurs debut, but on the hour Loftus-Cheek made a run into the box from the right, but his shot was blocked a couple of times before Sterling took over and fired over the top from twelve yards out.  Straight away, Hojbjerg played a straight pass down the middle and Kane broke past a square Chelsea defence.  Through one-on-one with the keeper, he chose to shoot as he reached the 18-yard line and scuffed a right foot effort wide from just right of middle.  It was a very good chance and unlike Harry not to make the keeper work to make a save at least.

Spurs were now playing with Kane and Richarlison up top, with Son and Kulusevski behind them.  In the 63rd minute, Tottenham won their first corner and it brought another straight away.  The second went behind everyone moving into the six yard box and Chelsea broke away with Royal making a vital tackle on the opposite side of the pitch to where he should have been.

With a ball in the box being played out, Jorginho tried to be too clever and flicked the ball into Son’s chest.  The play moved on and Chelsea got a block to the ball that came out to Ben Davies just outside the D.  He moved the ball on to his right and Hojbjerg struck it first time.  The ball lacked a great deal of power, but it went past Mendy’s dive to his left and inside the post to give Spurs an equaliser. Which the second half performance to that point deserved.  It all kicked off on the side-lines again as Tuchel thought Havertz had been fouled before Tottenham moved forward, but Bentancur had got the ball first.  Tuchel had confronted Conte and the coaching staff all got involved, ending with both managers getting a yellow card, with one each for the coaching staff.  Chelsea were also claiming handball against Son, but with the ball having been played at him, it realistically couldn’t have been given, but then you never know with referees.

Reece James out a ball in from the right that Romero couldn’t touch as he was facing his own goa, but Havertz came in behind him and volleyed the ball wide from five yards out.  Spurs got caught light on our left side, so when the ball came to Sterling in the middle, he laid it square for James to drill it over Lloris’ dive to restore the home lead.  It had come after two instances where Kulusevski had been knocked over in challenges that had won Chelsea free-kicks.  It left Spurs exposed and in the end it was a fairly simple finish.

Mount missed another good chance when Chelsea broke on Spurs pulling it wide of the near post on their left.  For once, Kane’s challenge on Gallagher didn’t get given as a foul and from the centre-circle, he played a pass left to Richarlison, but it was too wide for him to do much with.

With six minutes added on, some of which was for Mendy’s time-wasting, a Perisic long throw got a flick on by Dier at the near post, coming to Kane too quickly at the near post to do anything other than let it hit him.  Spurs then won a corner when Bissouma had a shot that was deflected over.  When it came in, it was headed at goal by Dier, forcing Mendy to tip the ball over the top.  There followed a lot of pushing and shoving as Romero had pulled Cucerella’s voluminous hair, but nothing was given and when the next corner was played into the box from our right wing, three Spurs players went for it, with no blue shirt challenging, so Kane glanced his header inside the far post to grab an equaliser.

Conte’s celebrations were subdued considering the way things had gone, in stark contrast to Tuchel’s provocative run in front of him when Chelsea for their second.  There was little time for much lese to happen before the referee blew his whistle to end the game, but still plenty of time to see it all start again after that.  Conte went to shake Tuchel’s hand, but the German failed to let go as the Spurs manager went to move to the Spurs fans and pulled Conte round, with a number of players and coaches piling in.  Taylor, who hadn’t the faintest idea of what went on waved the red card at both managers and the two sets of players managed to get off without any other trouble, but it was clear to see who was the aggressor.

The Chelsea manager’s lack of class even surfaced in a post-match interview, where he became the latest in a long line of manager to criticise decisions that he gone against him and another foreign manager who thinks he can dictate more than the game itself, by suggesting that Taylor should never officiate at a Chelsea match again.  Admittedly, the referee has had finer moments, but Bentancur clearly got a foot to the ball before Havertz fell to ground (not for the first time in the match).  Tuchel was happy enough to take the decisions when their players were given the benefit after pushing Spurs players to the turf, but obviously, he is unable to accept it when it goes against his team.  Treading the same path as Wenger and Mourinho before him, he had told the referee how to run the game days before kick-off, but ended up hung with his own rope.

Having already been booked, he left his technical area to race along the touchline past Conte when Chelsea took a 2-1 lead.  Having already been shown a yellow card, such a transgression in leaving his technical area was raised on Sky, pointing out that it was another yellow card offence, so should have brought a red.  However, it he had been dismissed at that point, he wouldn’t have made the catastrophic substitutions that helped swing the game in Tottenham’s favour.  Managing his temper is as poor as his game management ability it would seem.

Interestingly, the VAR team (including Mike Dean) looked at the hair-pull incident, but, as far as we are aware (and nobody tells us), there was no review when Cucerella dug his blades into Cuti’s knee early in the match.  It is the sort of game that our central defender will revel in and we may have to expect that there could be red cards along the way, as he does not hold back in the manner that he plays the game.  With tackles flying in and the referees letting stuff go (too much and too inconsistently for my liking), it plays to his strengths and it is so ironic that Chelsea didn’t like it when he started giving them some ‘dark arts’ back.  Havertz tried to rile him by hitting him with some late challenges, but people will have to learn that those tactics only make him stronger.  Yes he reacted to one, but it was Havertz who put his head in.  So, when Harry nodded in the equaliser, Romero’s celebration in the face of James is worth so much more to him when he has been the victim of a wind-up campaign.  Last season’s mocking of Maguire lost its impact when Ronaldo won the game for United on his own, but even though it was only a point, it felt much more than that after the way Tuchel had shown he lacks any class (he will probably be a legend at Chelsea because of that, which is in keeping with the club’s traditions).

While Tottenham were pretty poor in the first half, there was a renewed vigour about them in the second half and the substitutions Conte made were much more effective than his counterpart.  While Tuchel was praised for his tactics in overseeing a first half domination, noting was said about the inability of his side to finish the game off or perform the game management needed to see out a win.  Conte’s team is one of a group of fighters and while a last minute goal is always celebrated with great joy, the togetherness came through as much as anything, with Bissouma reserving time to show the cameras how much it meant.  Few Spurs players came out of the first half with much credit, but Pierre Hojbjerg became a growing influence on the match and Kane was assisted by the fresh legs of Richarlison, giving the tiring Chelsea defence less time on the ball and more questions to answer. 

Much is made about Tottenham’s record against Chelsea, but there is little to link what happened 30 years ago to what happened today.  The pundits who carp on about it fail to mention that Chelsea don’t play like this against anyone else with the chip on their shoulder weighing heavily in having to prove that they are any good.  It results in the Battle of the Bridge and while this wasn’t quite the sequel, the way that the home side are wound up eventually worked in Tottenham’s favour, as they lost their composure and two points.  The result is again an improvement on last season’s result (coming after a win over South Coast Big Club that had been a loss last season).  It is not just the bettering of last season’s results that is impressive, but also the team’s recovery in adversity after being behind in both games and the resolve to battle to the very end.  Tuchel said that Chelsea were the better team over 90 minutes, but over 101 minutes, that didn’t prove to be the case.

COYS !

Tony (Enfield)

Ben Davies makes his 250th Premier League appearance.

Marc Cucerella makes his Chelsea debut.