Tottenham VS Chelsea FC Report
Tottenham 2-4 Chelsea: Marvellous Mata inspires Chelsea comeback
The Blues win a thrilling a London derby with the Spaniard
grabbing a double and Gary Cahill and Daniel Sturridge also on target as
Villas-Boas loses to his former team
There was no revenge for Andre Villas-Boas as Chelsea
continued their unbeaten start to the season at White Hart Lane with a
performance full of the attacking verve their former coach was hired to
implement.
This was the best of football, a pulsating,
ever-changing derby encounter decided by two goals in as many
second-half minutes by the quite brilliant Juan Mata, who shone
brightest of all in Chelsea’s sparkling midfield and set-up Daniel
Sturridge in injury time for the Blues’ fourth goal.
Chelsea had
initially taken the lead through Gary Cahill’s brilliant volley in the
18th minute before Spurs rallied in the second half to turn the game on
its head through goals from William Gallas and Jermain Defoe.
Chelsea, though, deserved a victory that
keeps up their best start to a season since 2006 and leaves them top of
the league with 22 points from their first eight matches, while Spurs
remain outside the top four.
Against the club that sacked him
earlier this year, Villas-Boas restored goalkeeper Brad Friedel to the
starting line-up ahead of Hugo Lloris, while Mousa Dembele missed out
through a hip injury and Gareth Bale dropped out late after his partner
went into labour.
Chelsea captain John Terry served the first
game of a four-match ban for using racist language, but the Blues barely
noticed his absence in the first half as they controlled the early
stages and took advantage of Spurs’ missing men.
The first 45
minutes was defined by two volleys. The first, in the fourth minute, was
badly mishit by Spurs captain Gallas from a Gylfi Sigurdsson corner and
trickled wide from seven yards.
The second, in the 18th minute,
broke the deadlock. After a poor header from Gallas as he tried to clear
a corner, the ball fell for Cahill to smash the ball into the roof of the net from just inside the penalty area. Thunderous.
Chelsea
really should have doubled their advantage in the 39th minute when
Ramires found Mata, but his shot was saved by Friedel before he smashed
the rebound over the crossbar.
Villas-Boas decided not to make
any personnel changes at the break but Spurs came out for the second
half with a completely new attitude.
Within a minute of the restart, they were level as they took
advantage as the Chelsea defence simply fell asleep. Tom Huddlestone’s
free-kick appeared to be drifting off the pitch but Jan Vertonghen
superbly kept the ball alive, allowing Gallas to head home his first Spurs goal virtually from the goal-line.
Five minutes later, Tottenham took the lead
as Defoe scored the 200th goal of his career with a true poacher’s
finish. Aaron Lennon appeared to be attempting to shoot from the right
but Defoe reacted more quickly than anyone to expertly turn the ball in.
White
Hart Lane was rocking but this was a topsy-turvy, helter-skelter game
and it once again turned on its head in the space of a crazy two
minutes, as Mata scored twice with more than a helping hand from Gallas.
On
65 minutes, the Spaniard picked up Gallas’ woeful clearance and drilled
a perfect, clean finish into the bottom corner with his left foot.
Mata
has been in wonderful form so far this season and it was little
surprise that he was the man to score Chelsea’s third goal of the
afternoon. First he evaded Gallas’ attention, and as the Frenchman
watched Eden Hazard’s wonderful pass slide past him, Mata raced through and converted one-on-one past Friedel.
Torres latched on to another Mata pass but shot wide before the victory was sealed in added time, Sturridge turning in to an empty net after more brilliant work from the diminutive Spaniard.
Т-Ч footyroom.com by footyroom
Source : Goal.com