Chelsea (away) 23.01.2022

Twice in the first five minutes Chelsea had half-chances to score, with Lukaku pulling a shot over the bar from a low ball in from their right wing and then on the other side Hudson-Odoi headed a right-wing cross wide at the far post. Ziyech had a shot on goal when he came inside from the right and Lloris got down to punch the ball out, but in the 14 th minute, Kane won the ball on the Spurs right near the halfway line, played it inside to Winks, who strode forward and hit a low shot from just outside the area, but Arrizabalaga got down to his left to save it comfortably.

The game became a bit bogged down in midfield and with a few fouls scattered amongst them, including a booking for Silva as Bergwijn looked to break through from the centre circle and a snide push on Tanganga by Mount, shoving the Spurs defender into the advertising hoardings.

With all the talk about Spurs playing on the break, as we pressed hard when the home team played the ball out from the back, they played Mount away on the right  and his low ball into the box was missed by Ziyech, who took a swing and a moss at it. Then Lukaku missed heading Hudson-Odoi’s cross from the left corner of the box for another Chelsea chance to go without being taken.

Just after Tanganga had been booked for blocking off Hudson-Odoi, Spurs broke away and Ryan Sessegnon got beyond Azpilicueta, but getting into the box, he pulled his shot and it just about went off for a goal-kick before it reached the corner flag. Spurs had the ball in the net shortly after that miss, when Sessegnon played a low ball in from the left and Thiago Silva threw himself to the ground and left Kane with the ball at his feet and he slipped it past Kepa’s right into the net. Tierney ruled it out for a foul on Silva, but it was never a foul and VAR failed to review it as the goal was not given, when, with five minutes to go to half-time, could have been a good time to score (although any time would have been a good time to score).

Dier threw a good block when Lukaku made space for the shot outside the left corner of the box and then interestingly, when the next Chelsea cross came in, Lukaku was shoving Sanchez with no free-kick for Tottenham but a corner for the home team. Tierney was showing no consistency in how he was giving decisions but maybe we shouldn’t be surprised by that as most referees can’t be consistent from minute to minute.

The start of the second half was delayed by a hole in Hugo Lloris’ net on a weekend when there had been stoppages for a drone, a floodlight failure and a serious clash of heads.  The half had eventually only been going two minutes when Chelsea went ahead. The ball was played to the right and from outside the box, halfway between the right corner and the D, he curled the ball into the top right-hand corner of Hugo’s goal, left him looking at it with no chance of saving the effort.

Two minutes later, Sanchez did well to block Mount’s shot and it came out to Ziyech. Again, outside the box, but this time Lloris dived right to beat the ball away.  Mount blasted a shot from 18 yards over before a weak free-kick for a foul on Hudson-Odoi that was flighted in for Silva to head past Hugo and make it 2-0. It was a soft goal to concede from a set-piece and something we tend to do against Chelsea.

Some pushing and shoving between Bergwijn and Azpilicueta before Stevie pushed him as he had done Soyuncu on Wednesday at Leicester. The impact was almost the same, as Kane ran past two challenges on the left wing to cross, which was headed out and kept alive by Skipp, giving Bergwijn the chance to scissor-kick a shot at goal, but Kepa got down behind it. Constantly in the referee’s face and the amount of confrontation after as much as a free-kick is given against Chelsea saw no respect for the official. He almost had a decision to make when Azpilicueta locked onto Skipp in the box from a corner get pulled down, but the referee gave it Tottenham’s way for a change.

Hugo had to rush out of his box to get to the ball before Hudson-Odoi and did so with a diving header ! In their next forward movement, Lukaku turned Sanchez on the edge of the box and fired a shot at goal that Hugo beat out and Spurs broke to line-up Doherty with a shot from just inside the right of the penalty area, although Skipp’s pass was a little short and it was blocked for a corner that came to nothing.

Bergwijn had a late chance when Kane played the ball to him in the middle of the 18 yard line, but he scuffed his effort harmlessly at Kepa and the keeper had to do better from a late corner, when Kane’s header was on target and the ball was pushed wide.  There was the inevitable time-wasting, with Chelsea players going down for any or no reason to disrupt the flow of the game. It was interesting how Hudson-Odoi’s two handed push on Lucas that took him off the pitch was not a foul when the referee reckoned Kane’s infringement to deny him a goal was less than 2% of the strength of this offence.

It was another game when a dodgy refereeing decision went Chelsea’s way and then a very good goal changed the game. Spurs played better than they had in the two League Cup semi-finals, but failed to trouble the Chelsea goalkeeper too much, as they were set up to not concede more than go for a goal. While we have done well against the teams we have played in the league so far, the deciding factor in how successful a season it has been will be our results against the top four.

Paul Martindale