For the first time in 27 years, Tottenham Hotspur got the better of Chelsea at Stamford Bridge thanks to goals from Christian Eriksen and Delle Alli.
Tottenham Hostpur took a Chelsea side at Stamford Bridge who had won only two of their last six games in all competitions. As expected, both sides started the game brightly but as the game went on, Chelsea were looking like the more threatening side.
It took 18 minutes for the ball to end up in the back of Tottenham’s net, after an N’golo Kante ball into box was met sweetly by Marcos Alonso. However, much to the chagrin of some 40,000 odd Chelsea fans, the Spaniard was ruled to be offside and rightly so.
The next time it happened however, the linesman could do nothing. As Chelsea broke for the counter, Antonio Rudiger’s cross field ball found Victor Moses on the right flank. The Nigerian sent a pinpoint cross into the box for a grateful Alvaro Morata to head it in and give Chelsea the lead.
With the score at 1-0 after half an hour played, neither side let up after the restart. After a considerable amount of back and forth during which Chelsea seemed the most threatening, Christian Eriksen received the ball and from about 20 yards away, unleashed a rocket past Willy Caballero to bring Spurs back into the game in the 44th minute.
Chelsea had a chance to take the lead a minute later after the restart, when the ball fell to Marcos Alonso who was making a run into the visitors’ box, but he could only blast high and wide off Lloris’ goal. Both sides broke half-time with the scores at 1-1 and the momentum with Pochettino’s men.
Willy Caballero then made a superb save to keep a curling effort from Heung Min-Son out just under the hour mark. Two minutes later, Eric Dier unleashed a superb long ball to find Dele Alli running into space, who then took one touch before chipping it past a helpless Caballero to give Spurs the lead.
In the 66th minute, Eriksen sent Son away on the right flank and his first shot was eventually blocked by Caballero, as was the subsequent attempt at a tap in. None of the three Chelsea defenders in the six yard box marked Dele Alli, who slotted it in calmly to score Spurs’ third of the night.
Post that goal it was all Chelsea, who were threw everything they had at Spurs’ defence. The visitors stood their ground and absorbed wave after wave of Chelsea attack. They occasionally got the ball forward in Chelsea’s half but that never led to anything substantial.
Harry Kane’s 74th minute introduction didn’t help and they were restricted to sitting back and defending for the rest of the game, which they did very well. All of Conte’s substitutions were made in the last 10 minutes of the game but they did nothing to help their cause.
The combined might of Eden Hazard, Willian, Alvaro Morata, Olivier Giroud and Cesc Fabregas just was met head on and nullified by Spurs’ fantastic defending for the last 25 minutes of the game, before Andre Marriner finally put Chelsea out of their misery after 4 minutes of stoppage time.
