It was a typically incident-filled meeting between these sworn enemies but, really, there was only one place to start. Ange Postecoglou, the remorselessly under-fire Tottenham manager, had been barracked by his own club’s supporters when he replaced Lucas Bergvall with Pape Sarr in the 64th minute.
Bergvall had enjoyed a few bright moments. “You don’t know what you’re doing,” the travelling hordes informed Postecoglou. And so just imagine how the fiercely proud Australian must have felt shortly afterwards when Sarr won the ball off Moisés Caicedo and unloaded a low shot that the Chelsea goalkeeper, Robert Sánchez, inexplicably allowed to beat him.
Related: Chelsea v Tottenham: Premier League – live
We would not need to imagine because Postecoglou turned to face the Spurs fans, who were celebrating wildly, and cupped his ear in their direction. It was simply a stunning illustration of just how frayed the relationship between them has become. Was this breaking point?
There would be a twist when the VAR, Jarred Gillett, went over the Sarr challenge on Caicedo and he did not need to look too long to see the obvious foul. The goal was disallowed. Sarr was booked. Postecoglou was crushed.
Chelsea had been in complete control up until the Bergvall/ Sarr change, leading through Enzo Fernández’s header, the only wonder being how they were not further ahead. The outstanding Caicedo would see a goal chalked off by the VAR early in the second half.
The passions raged, the game broke up and out of the chaos came a Spurs revival. They got on to the front foot, making Chelsea nervous and Enzo Maresca’s team needed a fine Sanchez save to deny Son Heung-min at the far post. In the end, Chelsea hung on to fire their hopes of a Champions League finish. The future for Postecoglou and Spurs remains less certain.
It is always possible to feel the ghosts of previous meetings when these two collide and Chelsea’s 4-3 win at Tottenham’s stadium on 8 December was a part of it. At that point Chelsea were being talked about as dark horses for the title. They have had to realign their sights. Spurs lost Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven to muscle problems that night and this was the central defenders’ first league start together since then.
It fed the line about whether we would see the real Spurs because, after all the injury misery, this was pretty much Postecoglou’s strongest XI. The only certain starter who was missing was Dejan Kulusevski – a big loss.
Maresca’s answer to several selection teasers and the injury-enforced absence of Wesley Fofana had been to start Malo Gusto at right-back and drop Reece James. He stuck with Jadon Sancho ahead of the fit-again Noni Madueke. The return of Cole Palmer and Nicolas Jackson was a boost.
Tottenham got a warning about Jackson’s threat inside the opening minute. His speed is not a secret. But being forewarned does not equal being forearmed. It was a long ball over the top by Trevoh Chalobah and Jackson was able to get in between Romero and Van de Ven, taking a touch and prodding goalwards. Guglielmo Vicario half-blocked and when Van de Ven’s panicked clearance hit Jackson, the ball ricocheted against a post and away.
Chelsea were in the mood from the first whistle, pushing high, bringing the intensity. Spurs struggled to get out. Postecoglou felt the frustration bubble. He delivered a rollicking to Bergvall in the 20th minute after the midfielder failed to track a run into the area by Palmer, who crossed low. Destiny Udogie would make a saving challenge on Fernández in front of goal.
Chelsea’s dominance of the first half was total. It was there in their physicality. When Van de Ven tried to burst upfield, he was stopped unceremoniously by Caicedo, who promptly suggested he should not try that again. Or choicer words to that effect. There were numerous examples of Spurs looking weak in the duels. Caicedo was like a wrecking ball.
Chelsea were able to find spaces in between the lines, to work their passing patterns whereas Spurs were tentative on the ball, gripped by anxiety. Time and again they misplaced passes before the interval. Son Heung-min fired in a low shot from a tight angle, which Sánchez shovelled away but that was it from them as an attacking force in the first half. The lack of cohesion was startling.
It was frustrating for Chelsea that they could not take a lead into the interval. Gusto had rifled into the side-netting on eight minutes and there was the staggeringly good Vicario reflex save from Sancho in stoppage-time. Sancho was one of two Chelsea players over at the far post on Pedro Neto’s cross and he was always going to cut inside and shoot, having seemed reluctant to do so on a couple of previous occasions. He got a hold of it from about six yards. Vicario, who had been a little erratic, threw out a hand to tip over.
When Romero barged into Levi Colwill to spark a bit of the argy-bargy with which this fixture has become synonymous, the half-time whistle was looming. It was an isolated illustration of first-half fight by Spurs and the hope from their side was that it could re-emerge with them for the second period.
Instead, it was Chelsea who kept their feet against Tottenham’s throats. Palmer had worked Vicario when he floated over the cross to break the deadlock. No one could say the goal had not been advertised. Fernández was unmarked, Spurs’s defensive structure in tatters. His header was firm and true.
Spurs got away with one shortly afterwards when Caicedo fizzed home the sweetest of volleys after the visitors could only half-clear a Fernández free-kick. Following a lengthy VAR review, Colwill was adjudged to have been offside in the middle.
