Chelsea vs Tottenham: The One Where Tottenham Continued Being Spursy at Stamford Bridge

Everyone devastated about Matic's 1 match suspension

Although trying to get into Stamford Bridge last night was a special kind of hell with not all the gates functioning and a somewhat inebriated crowd - the payoff was worth it* for those who managed to survive the crush on the way in. Because Chelsea’s favourite guest was in the house last night and were as accommodating as ever.
If Twitter were to be believed Tottenham looked no better than a League 2 side. But if Twitter were to be believed about everything than Macaulay Culkin would be dead and the Lad Bible would be funny. As it stands, Tottenham started quite brightly and caused a lot of trouble for Chelsea in the opening minutes with the crossbar being the only thing standing between Harry Kane’s header and us having to endure ‘he’s one of the lads’ for the next 83 minutes.

But just as Eden Hazard turned Aaron Lennon inside out, the game fell under Chelsea’s control as he managed to slot in a goal past a struggling Lloris. Within moments Chelsea found themselves 2-0 up thanks to the legend that is Didier Drogba. There were quite a few people having a moan about his return over the summer thinking he’d somehow ruin his status. If you’re one of those people - do let me know if you celebrated with the rest of Stamford Bridge or sat in silent contemplation about how wrong you really were.

Didier Drogba has played his role of backup striker and man motivator perfectly this season. As he stepped in for the suspended Costa, he troubled the back four throughout most of the night making it look like he’d never left Chelsea at all. With Willian providing the speed, Hazard the nuanced runs, it was Drogba who provided the muscle up front to hold off whatever it was Vertonghen was trying to do. Remember when he was good? No?

Going into the match, there was a fair few who fully expected Willian to be the first goalscorer of the night - not even just an anytime scorer. And to those people I simply ask — Why? You can appreciate the man’s work rate all you want, but his finishing is still absolute pony. And despite any songs to the contrary, his feelings against Tottenham are not strong enough for him to master the on target shot. From his deepest darkest days with Arsenal, Cesc Fabregas would have been the likeliest of candidates to want to see Spurs off.

One man you had to feel for was little Ben Davies. although Chiriches was mostly tasked with trying to contain Eden Hazard, Davies often found himself in the position of trying to deal with both Hazard and Willian. That of course was when he was not being upended by Ivanovic. By and large he held his own, but by the 75th minute he just looked like he was hating life as he waited for support that was never coming his way in his own third of the pitch.

What went wrong for what had been a recently resurgent Tottenham side? The quality of football Chelsea have been playing, Sunderland aside, was always going to be an uphill battle for just about anyone - resurgent or not. But Tottenham had managed to win 3 of their last 4 games after conceding the first goal. And started both halves of this game very well. But it wasn’t to be. Six of the Spurs side that started last night hadn’t been born the last time Tottenham won at Stamford Bridge. The weight of that record definitely played into it.

But by and large, the biggest factor in last night’s loss was the return of the gilet to the Spurs bench. Pochettino is a casual track suit type of manager — which is fine enough for some. But after the relationship that his predecessor had with that particular garment, someone really should have stepped in and not allowed the feisty teddy bear that is Tottenham’s manager to continue to commit said crimes against touchline fashion. And for that, Pochetinno’s side was dually punished.

jb xx

* it -may not- have been worth the hassle for Tottenham supporters 

ps ... although it seems remiss to not talk about another stunning performance from Chelsea's large Serbian in the middle of the pitch - but there is some anticipation that there will be some lamenting his suspension this weekend. Jose Mourinho may 'not have even remembered Diego Costa' last night - but something tells me he won't be so quick to forget Nemanja Matic.