Chelsea 2-0 Tottenham: Premier League – how it happened | first division

Jacob Steinberg on Conor Gallagher

And with that, I’m leaving. Here’s the match report again. Bye bye!

Micky Van de Ven Admits that Champions League places seem distant for Spurs:

Today was not a good performance for us. I think we can do much better, play much better football. In the first half we didn’t even go out and when we went out we didn’t push. In the second half we wanted to play and I think we tried to play, but there was no confidence. I don’t want to say that our confidence is gone. It is important that we recover well and recover over the weekend.

In set pieces:

We know what to do, but each ball enters the moment. Of course, that can’t happen, two goals again from set pieces. But it’s not that every time they have a set piece I think it’s going to be a goal.

David Hytner presented his match report from Stamford Bridge:

Ange Postecoglou says she doesn’t care about the questions being asked about Tottenham’s inability to defend safely from set pieces. The manager believes that he will do well. But he couldn’t prevent another hailstorm from them as his team suffered a third straight loss and its season was in increasing danger of failing.

It was Chelsea’s night, and this was a victory that lit up their hopes of finishing the Europa League in a relentlessly testing season. They were excellent in the first half, Spurs were so poor that Postecoglou howled in frustration on several occasions. It was hard to remember seeing him so unhappy.

Much more here:

Pochettino: ‘It’s the first time this season that I feel so happy’

Trevoh Chalobah chats with Sky:

I’ve been working on my headers and we’ve worked a lot on set pieces. It was a perfect ball to attack. I’ve been working hard in training, alone, and that’s what hard work does.

For me, I’ve been through a lot in my career. It’s important to just stay focused. I know my abilities. And just keep working. I have been training well and the coach is putting me through, and every time I put on the jersey I want to do my best and give it my all.

The types of players we have, the skill we have, the moment we get that consistency we will be flying. We just have to stay firm and humble.

The league standings now look like this. Spurs need to beat one of Liverpool or Manchester City, plus their other two games, to have even the slightest chance of qualifying for the Champions League (Villa play Brighton (a), Liverpool (h) and Crystal Palace (a), and you. I thought they’d probably get three points with that). Chelsea are three points behind sixth place with the best goal difference, and have much kinder games than Manchester United, who still have to play against Arsenal and Newcastle.

Final result: Chelsea 2-0 Tottenham

90+5 minutes: Gil’s cross from the left bounces off the edge of the Chelsea six-yard box, with no Spurs player getting very close.

90+4 minutes: Jimi Tauriainen replaces Jackson. To answer your question, yes, that is a lot of vowels.

90+2 minutes: Spurs win the ball just inside their own half and break; Son tees up Bentancur, who heads wide.

90+1 minutes: The ball finally reaches Hojbjerg, beyond the far post. You’re in all kinds of space, but you get a touch and suddenly you have nothing.

90+1 minutes: There will be six minutes of added time and they will begin with a Spurs corner after Maddison’s shot deflects wide.

89 minutes: Bentancur’s 25-yard shot is a mistake and he dribbles apologetically into Petrovic’s arms.

87 minutes: Palmer’s free kick appears to be curved, but Vicario makes sure. Corner.

86 minutes: Chelsea have another tasty set piece, this time just to the right of the penalty area. Lo Celso enters in place of Emerson Royal.

84 minutes: Gilchrist goes down and the Chelsea physiotherapists come to take a look at him. Looks like his night is over. He’s been pretty positive: he wouldn’t say he hasn’t made a misstep, but he hasn’t seemed out of place. Josh Acheampong makes his debut in the Premier League.

83 minutes: Spurs continue to monopolize possession and do nothing with it.

80 minutes: The Spurs are seeing the ball a lot more these last few minutes, but they still have no idea what to do with it. “I was full of righteous indignation today because England have four Champions League places against Germany and five from Italy, but, frankly, looking at Spurs tonight there is no way they deserve to be in the European elite,” he fumed. Felix Wood. “Clueless back, clueless forward. “Chelsea’s full-backs basically have to stand still and have Johnson kick the ball to them or receive a cross pass unfortunately under their heads.”

78 minutes: Bryan Gil comes in for Johnson, who hasn’t been very good.

77 minutes: Romero is inside the Chelsea penalty area, rolling and clutching his face. It turns out that Casadei jumped on him.

74 minutes: Chelsea brings on Cesare Casadei for Mudryk.

74 minutes: What a lady! Spurs send in an excellent low cross from the right. He runs towards Johnson beyond the far post and he deflects it wide!

GOAL! Chelsea 2-0 Tottenham (Jackson, 72 minutes)

71 minutes: Chelsea wins a free kick about five yards outside the D zone, and Cole Palmer watches it hungrily.

68 minutes: Son passes to Johnson, who slides a low ball too far in front of Emerson Royal for delivery. Turns out Son was offside at the start of the play, so it didn’t matter.

67 minutes: Chelsea comes out of the corner and Jackson is in the center circle when Van de Ven runs up behind him and takes him down. That’s the first yellow card of the night.

66 minutes: Johnson kicks the ball towards Gilchrist this time and he stays back for a Spurs corner.

64 minutes: Johnson is now on the left, so he has a new winger to kick the ball to. Son is in the middle and Kulusevski is on the right.

63 minutes: Probably Spurs’ best two minutes of the game, but they can’t find a way through the Chelsea backline and it ends with a long-range shot going wide. And with this, triple change: Richarlison, Bissouma and Sarr leave; Bentancur, Maddison and Hojbjerg enter.

60 minutes: Madueke runs into the box but tries to pass to Palmer when he should have put the ball into the roof of the net.

58 minutes: The ball is played directly to Johnson. Richarlison stands out in the middle. Johnson kicks the ball toward Cucurella. Pedro Porro literally has his head in his hands.

56 minutes: Johnson is putting on a frustratingly innocent display on the Spurs right. He can run and kick, and if someone gets in his way, he will run at them or kick the ball to them.

52 minutes: From a quick throw-in Madueke finds himself in space and passes to Palmer, just inside the area and with room to measure his shot. The shot at him, however, is silly.

50 minutes: Son has already run with the ball twice in this half. He was almost completely absent in the first half. The second run ends with a cut on Gilchrist’s heel and a free kick.

48 minutes: Spurs win a corner. Cucurella falls holding his face (van de Ven pushed him a little, but nothing happened to his face). Chelsea free kick.

47 minutes: Spurs on the front foot. Petrovic dives to deny a cross from the right. “Is there a way for the Spurs to start every game 1-0 down?” asks Phil Moseley. “Basically (a) it’s inevitable anyway, and (b) they don’t wake up until they do. I think Ange would be fine with this, just as he would be fine with conceding goals from set pieces.”

46 minutes: Peeeep! The Spurs start the second half.

The players have gone out again. Neither manager appears to have made any changes mid-term.

Halftime listening: Yes, it’s Angry Angerson. Suddenly you’re seeing it for what it is.

Sky is talking about “Angry Ange”, saying he was absolutely incandescent at times in the first half. The problem is that even when he’s angry he seems to look pretty cheerful:

Half-time: Chelsea 1-0 Tottenham

45+4 minutes: Ten seconds of stoppage time left and Chelsea win a corner. This will be the last action of the half, you would have thought.

45+3 minutes: Petrovic has his work cut out for him, latching onto Johnson’s low cross after it deflected off Cucurella.

45+2 minutes: A good move from Spurs, but it ends with Johnson cutting the ball to Sarr, whose shot deflects off Chalobah.

45+1 minutes: To injury time, which will be four minutes.

43 minutes: Johnson wins a corner. This has been a better, if not exactly good, few minutes for the Spurs. “As an Arsenal fan I should enjoy this terrible performance from Spurs, but I need them to find some form as they will never take points away from City by playing like this,” writes Matthew Stephens. “COYS!”

41 minutes: Mudryk cuts inside again and shoots high again. He’s had a decent half, but he’s had a couple of bad shots.