Kaboul (foul on Eto'o) 58
 

  2  Branislav IVANOVIC
24  Gary CAHILL
26  John TERRY (c)
28  Cesar AZPILICUETA     

  7  RAMIRES
  8  Frank LAMPARD      (11  OSCAR 46)
21  Nemanja MATIC

17  Eden HAZARD 
29  Samuel ETO’O  (19  Demba BA 76    )
14  Andre SHURRLE   (22  WILLAN 66)
 

Unused subs: 
23  Mark SCHWARZER
33  Tomas KALAS
12  Jon Obi MIKEL
15  Mohamed SALAH

 

16  Kyle NAUGHTON     
20  Michael DAWSON (c) (35  Zeki FRYERS 72)
  4  Younes KABOUL      
  5  Jan VERTONGHEN

42  Nabil BENTALEB     
30  SANDRO     

  2  Kyle WALKER
22  Gylfi SIGURDSSON  (  8  PAULINHO 61)
  7  Aaron LENNON

10  Emmanuel ADEBAYOR

Unused subs: 
24  Brad FRIEDEL
17  Andros TOWNSEND
21  Nacer CHADLI
  9  Roberto SOLDADO
37  Harry KANE
 

Spurs managed to go down to a 4-0 defeat when the score was 0-0 up until the 56th minute, when a slip by Vertonghen and then a few minutes later, a slip by the referee saw them come home from SW6 with the usual haul of 'nil point'.

Taking to the field with only Emanuel Adebayor up front, the Tottenham team packed the midfield, while Chelsea also had only one player up top in the shape of Samuel Eto’o, who had to come in at short notice when Fernando Torres injured a groin in the warm-up. However, the Pensioners began the game in a 4-3-3 set up, while Spurs opted for a 4-2-3-1 formation. Naughton retained his place in the team, but Walker returned as a right sided midfielder and Gylfi Sigurdsson came in on the left. Bentaleb started in midfield alongside Sandro, with Mousa Dembele missing out. Kaboul’s return in the centre of defence allowed Vertonghen to play left back.

A through ball inside the first minute saw Eto’o inches offside, but as he went on Lloris came out to meet him and caught the forward on the ankle, which required some treatment before it was decided that he could carry on ... having a bit of a go at Hugo before he departed to the side-line. A similar break saw Eto’o put Hazard through, but Lloris’ charge made the Belgian take the ball too wide to turn his shot on target and it went past the post.

In the 13th minute, Bentaleb broke away on the left side of the box and hit a low shot across Cech, but wide, when Spurs had three other players up with him. Bentaleb had earlier been booked for pulling back Ramires, but when Azpilicueta went through Lennon late, Oliver only spoke to him. Following a spell of play when both teams failed to string passes together, from a deep free-kick, the ball was played out to Vertonghen on the left and his low cross was cleared out to Sandro, who hit a first time volley that had Cech scrambling low to his right to push the ball wide.

There were two incidents shortly after one another when Chelsea players went down holding their heads and the second saw Ramires win a free-kick, which Matic won at the far post, but headed it wide. Straight after that Bentaleb played a weak short pass that was picked off and Eto’o was put in on the right, but he took it too wide and shot into the side-netting. However, from Chelsea’s next free-kick, Spurs broke quickly, but Walker’s run from right to left across midfield failed to pick out Jan with a pass and Spurs got a throw-in instead of a good crossing opportunity.

It wasn’t a free flowing game, but then perhaps that was always on the cards. Chelsea’s players seemed more intent on telling the referee how he should officiate the match and he let them get away with it. Half the time they were doing it for him, by exaggerating touches on them and making them into fouls. The way they went down was really a disgrace. It was a surprise when Lampost saw yellow for a tackle from behind on Sandro, as he couldn’t keep up with him.

With Oscar coming on for Lampost at the break, Chelsea looked to be more attacking than they had been in the first half, but the one addition to their play was lady luck, who turned the match in their favour.

After Kaboul had headed a corner straight at Cech, Tottenham self destructed in the space of five minutes thanks to the pitch and the referee. Vertonghen was in space at left back and looked to turn, but slipped and with a blue shirt on top of him, he slid in to win the ball, but only managed to hook it into the path of Eto’o, who took his time and slid a shot under Lloris to open the scoring with 55 minutes gone.

Worse was to happen four minutes later, when a square ball to Eto’o saw the Cameroon international use all his experience in slowing down to a halt when Younes Kaboul came in behind him to draw the foul and allow Oliver to produce the red card and point to the spot. Hazard converted the penalty and at 2-0 there was little chance to get back in the match.

With half an hour left, Sherwood brought on Paulinho for Sigurdsson, to try and beef up the midfield, as Sandro dropped back into the back four. Space opened up among the Spurs players and when Willian came on, it was designed to allow the home side to exploit that space. Sandro was carrying a yellow card and had got away with one foul before Hazard nut-megged him and Sandro pushed him down as he looked to go through. Another red card might have signalled a rout. Losing Dawson with a hamstring injury brought Zeki Fryers on, thus making the side look even more lop-sided.

Fifteen minutes from time, Chelsea broke from their own half, but Hazard’s final ball was cut out by Sandro as he was looking for Eto’o. Despite the score-line, the voices you could hear above the silence of the home crowd were Tottenham supporters. Chelsea passed the ball about between themselves hoping to wear out the Tottenham players, but apart from Oscar’s shot way over when set up by Hazard, there were few threatening moments.

There was a foul on Naughton with six minutes to go, when Ba ran into the back of him in Tottenham’s own last third, which Oliver gave as a free-kick and nothing else. Interesting that in Kaboul’s case it was a red card, but outside the box, it doesn’t even warrant a yellow card. As it was, the first of our difficult spell in March wasn’t going to be retrieved. When Oscar’s low ball into the box with two minutes left was half-blocked by Sandro as he fell and the ball fell for Ba to smash past Lloris. It showed how the lack of a player helped Chelsea to three points.

A weak clearance straight up in the air by Lloris, that came off Ba was headed back to the k eeper by Walker, but Ba had recovered and out-muscled Lloris to take the ball and put it into an empty net.

Chelsea’s ability to win fouls eventually won them the game. When Eto’o went down with Kaboul behind him in the box, the game was over. A penalty and a red card made a difficult task even harder. Their professionalism cannot be questioned. 2-0 up, they were wasting time taking throw-ins, Mourinho holding onto the ball when Adebayor wanted to take a throw-in and shirt-pulling behind the referee’s back.

Two mistakes by Spurs players added to the woe.

75 home matches unbeaten under Mourinho. No surprise if this and many other Spurs games there are anything to go by.

Pete Stachio