Chelsea (Home) 26.02.2023

Chelsea were everything you imagined they would be.  Niggly, moany … and useless.  Fraser Forster enjoyed a restful afternoon with nothing coming his way to make him too nervous and the Spurs defence coped with what the visiting side could manage to get in the Spurs box.  It was as comfortable a win as you can imagine and while the first half lacked any outstanding moves, referee (and I use that term loosely) Stuart Attwell managed to rile most people in the stadium.

Chelsea actually began the match pushing forward, but the only problem they caused wasn’t to Tottenham, but to the referee, as Raheem Sterling was often hitting the turf looking to win a penalty.  Joao Felix was looking lively, trying to find a way in behind the Spurs defence, but failed to put an effort on goal, while at the other end, Ben Davies, Harry Kane and Dejan Kulusevski worked a good move on our left, with Kane getting into the box before Thiago Silva slid in to put the ball out for a corner.  In doing so, he did himself an injury and had to be substituted with former Leicester defender Wesley Fofana coming on for the Brazilian.  Forster had to be sharp after nothing had resulted from our corner and Chelsea worked a shooting opportunity for Felix but the Spurs keeper kept it out.

Davies was pushing up well on the left and his header infield from a diagonal Hojbjerg pass was scuffed across the face of goal by Kane and Spurs were unlucky not to take the lead in the 27th minute when Richarlison exchanged passes just outside the penalty area and the Brazilian laid a shooting chance on for Pierre Hobjerg.  The midfielder drilled his shot at goal and it came off Fofana’s outstretched foot to divert it onto the foot of the post and out, with Kepa rooted to the spot. When Richarlison passed the ball to Hojbjerg, Fernandez took him out late, but the referee did nothing about it.

After that the game got bogged down in midfield, with neither side finding a rhythm, but with four minutes to half-time, Richarlison got the ball on the left corner of the Chelsea penalty box and he curled a shot at the opposite corner, but it went too long and off for a goal-kick.  Sterling had a shot when he came inside from the right but Forster managed to keep it out, but not that convincingly – neither catching it nor beating it out.  The ball dropped in front of goal, but Havertz had run across the keeper’s view and was given offside, so it didn’t really matter.

As added time was being played, the game came to life when Havertz had a snide kick at Richarlison as he drifted past him and then he was taken out by Ziyech.  Players rushed in and Emerson Royal pushed Ziyech in the back, with Ziyech retaliating with a push into the Spurs wing-back’s face.  There were yellow cards waved at Havertz and Royal, before the official took advice from his linesman and produced a red card for the Chelsea winger for violent conduct.  While this was going on, there was no indication of what was going on for the fans to be informed, but then a VAR review flashed up on the big screens for violent conduct.  Was Royal going to be sent off too ?  Was someone else involved who would be seeing red ?  Who knew.  Not even Attwell, who had been advised to so to the monitor to review the incident and after he had looked at it in front of the East Stand, he strolled over to Ziyech and rescinded the red, down-grading it to a yellow.  If this was a one-off, I would put it down to an error of judgement, but Attwell has been involved in controversies even since 2008 when he awarded a goal that hit the stanchion outside of the goal and rebounded back out in a match between Reading and Oxford.  He ahs been widely criticised for decisions he has both made and not made, including Sabitzer’s leg-breaker last week, which he let go.  Perhaps it is about time he dropped out of reffing in the Premier League and dropped down into the EFL as has happened to him before. 

The ground was buzzing as people checked their phones to see what happened and if it should have been a yellow or red card.  Then most of the ground was buzzing twenty seconds into the second half.  A long pass to the left from kick off was won by Ben Davies and the ball was headed down to Richarlison, who turned away from James and played it to Kulusevski on the edge of the D.  Dejan held off Chilwell and waited to slip a pass to his right for Royal to hit a soft, low shot at goal that Kepa fumbled.  The ball was loose and Fernandez cleared the ball, but Oliver Skipp read it and his determination won it ahead of Felix, then, as the ball bounced in front of him, Skippy hit a pearler of a shot that Kepa might have been unsighted with Coulibaly in front of him, but his chocolate wrists could only help the ball on its way into the roof of the net and it was 1-0 to Tottenham. It was a sweet hit from a yard outside the penalty area and he enjoyed celebrating it, running to the corner flag in the South-west corner to be mobbed by his team-mates.  Since Bentancur’s injury, he has stepped up and looks every inch a Spurs midfielder for years to come, with this hopefully being the first of many goals for the club.

It gave Spurs a flying start to the second half and proved that we start the second period at a much faster pace.  Chelsea tried to hit back with Ziyech bending a shot that flew a yard wide of Forster’s right-hand post, then there was a clash of heads as Richarlison and James went for a header and both went down.  Stopping the game so that both players could receive attention, Attwell then restarted play with a ball dropped for Kepa in the area, when Spurs had been in possession on our left wing when he blew the whistle !  He obviously was having trouble remembering what happened a couple of minutes before.

Just after the hour, Graham Potter brought on Mount and Zakaria for Ziyech (before he got sent off) and Loftus-Cheek, who had been ineffective.  Tottenham were pressing for a second goal and pressing high, but when Royal won the ball and fed Kane, his cross was too far beyond Davies, who had found some space in the area.  Forster was on his toes at the other end, when he came out to claim a low pass into the box, intended for Havertz and then, to add to everything that had gone on before, Attwell ran off the pitch.  Again, no explanation, as referees do not have to justify their actions and it looked like he had gone off to go to the toilet.  After the match, it was reported that there had been technical problems (you’re telling me !) and that he had to change his communication equipment.  It might have been better if he hadn’t come back after his performance to that point. 

Anyway, three minutes later we were able to watch some football again and a crunching tackle by Cristian Romero on Havertz after the Spurs man had let the ball run away from him won the ball and play continued for a couple of seconds before the referee stopped play to show Mount a yellow card for dissent, because Chelsea hadn’t been given a free-kick.  Yes … they were that desperate.  The pressure on their goal was maintained and Richarlison looked to find Kepa’s top left corner from outside the box, but it was a couple of feet too high.  It was his last involvement, as Sonny came on for him a few minutes later.

And there was an immediate impact, as he took the corner on our right wing, finding Eric Dier in the middle of the box.  Almost ducking under it, he glanced the ball behind him to the far post and Harry escaped the marking of a sleeping Sterling to drag the ball from behind him and into the net to double the lead.  The set-pieces are really paying off for Spurs with Gianni Vio coming in as a specialist coach and it was another derby goal for Kane, who took it very well, as it wasn’t an easy finish, even though he was only a few yards out.

A couple of forward players were thrown on by the other side, as they desperately tried to get back in the game, but, other than a Mudryk shot that was too high from outside the box, they caused no problems, with Cristian Stellini giving Pedro Porro a home debut for the last few minutes.  By the time the final whistle went, the away section had been as vacant as their side had been of ideas.  They had started leaving when it got to 2-0 and only a few had bothered to stay and abuse their manager when he went over to applaud them.  It was as embarrassing performance from the fans as it was from the team, showing that they need to get accustomed to losing, especially as they have quite a bit of recent experience of that.

It was enjoyable at the end when Spurs players were flying into tackles just for the fun of it.  It was great to see Chelsea reduced to such a supporting role in a match and while they were there to be beaten, the end result was earned by a solid team performance once more, with every player fulfilling their role to make sure that there was barely a sniff of goal for the visitors.

Another great performance from Hojbjerg, intercepting the ball, wining tackles and moving forward to support the forwards and Skipp was equally as effective, topping his display off with a goal.  The back three kept tight to prevent the opposition getting through, with the wing-backs doing their defensive jobs as well as proving problematical for the Chelsea midfield and defence.  Forster did what he needed to do, claiming a couple of hopeful through balls into the box and our forwards clicked in the second half to ensure that the win was achieved.

Why Chelsea are so “troubled” when they appointed a sought-after manager and then splashed £500 million in the January transfer market, only their owners can explain.  A shadow of previous seasons, this team looked devoid of ideas and their one idea of getting out of their current malaise seems to be to moan about every decision … although that’s nothing new.  The £155 million spent on Fernandez might look like money well spent in future years, but at the moment, he looks anything but a World Cup winner and Chelsea pinned their hopes on the return of the over-hyped Reece James, who looked unfit and sorely out of form.  As for their main attacking threat – Kai Havertz – who was their loan striker with three players supposedly supporting him, looked entirely disinterested other than trying to foul Spurs players and mostly failing in that.  His performance was topped off when Romero nut-megged him near the edge of the Spurs penalty area.

Stellini maintains his 100% record in charge and Spurs are on a decent run with a few clean sheets thrown in, but it needs to continue.  We have played more games than a few teams around us and our goal difference isn’t that good in comparison to them.  With games ahead against Wolves, Forest, South Coast Big Club, Everton and Bournemouth it is imperative that we keep the run going before we meet Newcash.  That match won’t be the decider for fourth place, but in win at St. James will be just as important as any of those preceding matches.  We enjoyed the day, but we  look forward.

John Lacy’s Love Child

• Ben Davies makes his 300th appearance for Tottenham in all competitions.
• Oliver Skipp scores his first Spurs goal.