Chelsea continued their stunning league form to move even further clear at the top of the league, with Tottenham very much contributing towards their own downfall.
Jose Mourinho’s team made the most of being the only title contenders to play on Saturday, cruising past Champions League hopefuls Tottenham Hotspur.
The Blues were forced into a late change to the starting 11, replacing Fernando Torres with Samuel Eto’o after the Spaniard picked up a knock in the match warm-up.
Mourinho also picked Frank Lampard to partner Nemanja Matic and decided to keep Willian out the starting lineup to give last week’s hat-trick hero Andre Schurrle another start.
Mourinho’s men were straight into Tottenham from the off, with Samuel Eto’o incorrectly being called offside after 30 seconds, before being taken down by Spurs goalkeeper Hugo Lloris.
Despite the sharp first few kicks in the game, Chelsea, along with the game, died off for the remainder of the first half, with Tottenham’s Nabil Bentaleb having rhe best chance of the first 45 minutes.
Chelsea replaced Frank Lampard with Oscar at half time in an attempt to impose their presence on this Tottenham side and their shaky defence.
The change certainly impacted the game, with it taking just 11 minutes from the restart for Chelsea to go ahaead; Samuel Eto’o making the most of Jan Vertonghen’s slip and short back pass to calmly slot the ball past Hugo Lloris.
The striker entertained all inside Stamford Bridge, including Mourinho, with his ‘old man’ celebration which referred to his manager’s recent comments regarding his age. The Cameroonian turns 33 on Monday (or is it 36?)
Just three minutes later, Eto’o turned provider, earning a penalty from Younes Kaboul’s challenge which also resulted in the Frenchman getting sent off. Eden Hazard stepped up, and slotted in a composed manner down to Lloris’ left.
Chelsea replaced the influential Samuel Eto’o with the almost forgotten Demba Ba in the 76th minute and it took just over 10 minutes for the Senegalese to score two goals, once again both courtesy of defensive errors:
Tottenham failed to clear following a slip from Sandro with allowed Ba a composed finish through the goalkeepers legs to make it 3-0
Just a minute later, the striker got another goal to his name, stealing the ball from Hugo Lloris following Kyle Walkers wayward header – who ever said Chelsea had no goalscoring strikers?
Chelsea 4-0 Spurs
The final whistle went, and soon after the Chelsea boss reflected on a huge win over his team’s London rivals:
“I preferred the second half obviously, but it was a good game. The reality is Spurs had control but didn’t scare us. We waited for our best moment and knew it would come.”
The Chelsea boss also extinguished any fears some may have about his reaction to Eto’o’s celebration, claiming it was a “funny situation”.
For Tottenham, it was another poor result again the so called “bigger teams”, following a 6-0 defeat away to City and a 0-5 embarrassment at home to Liverpool.
In contrast, Chelsea are still yet to lose to any of their positional rivals, having played all but Liverpool away and Arsenal at Stamford Bridge – Jose Mourinho is famed for getting the best out of his team in such games.
Today’s win moved the Blues 7 points clear at the top of the table, piling pressure on Liverpool, Arsenal and Man City to win their games in hand in order to prevent Chelsea, the bookies’ new league favorites, getting away from them.
Chelsea’s next game is away to Aston Villa in the league, which can also be seen on Sky Sports’ ‘Saturday Night Football’ at 17:30 GMT next Saturday.
Chelsea vs Tottenham: Post-match facts:
- Chelsea did not manage a single shot on target during the first half against Tottenham
- Samuel Eto’o has now scored 300 goals in his club career
- Cesar Azpilicueta: 5 tackles won, 100% of aerial duels won, 5 clearances, 1 interception, 1 completed take-on
