Chelsea increased her hopes of the Champions League qualification on Thursday with a Premier League victory against the London rival Tottenham Hotspur at the Stamford Bridge.
In the end, Enzo Fernandez ‘second header turned out to be crucial, although one goal after two lengthy Var checks was not approved, which led to more than 100 minutes overall played.
How the game unfolds
Not even a full minute had passed when Chelsea scored the post at first glance of the goal. A long ball over the top took out the Spurs defense from the game, but while Nicolas Jackson was not quite able to take the ball in his crotch, a relaxed Micky van de Vens tried to release from the Chelsea front man and – fortunately or unfortunately – on the woodwork.
In a quick start for the blues, many home fans in the Stamford Bridge soon thought that Malo Gusto’s drive was sneaked into the page of the page directly into the post. A combination of fate Udogie and Guglielmo Vicario later prevented Enzo Fernandez from changing Cole Palmer’s low cross.
Half an hour in and with Chelsea continued to dominate the chances and shot the goal after hunting a hanging punt forward and outmens van de ven.
Spurs had hardly worried the Chelsea goal by the end of the first half when Son Hangung-Min Malo Gusto hit a loss of jumping and fired a low cross into the middle that Robert Sanchez did not take precisely. But the visitors could not use the loose ball.
At the end of the first 45, Jadon Sancho was left on the long post in space, but his curling shot into the upper corner was professionally overturned by Vicario.
The goalkeeper of Spurs made a good but comfortable rescue from Palmer at the beginning of the second half, but when Chelsea recycled the ball, there was no stopping Palmer. His perfectly fled cross was hit by Fernandez’s head, which stands in the box between the defenders.
A few moments later, Moises Caicedo beat itself up in a mighty volley, just to see that the structure was broken off a marginal offside. The Var rating took four minutes to achieve a conclusion, and the semi-automatic offside technology that came later this month cannot come here early.
Chelseas Ecuador International was soon at the center of another important moment when Spurs believed that they had balanced out of nowhere. Caicedo was expropriated by Pape Sarr, who went home from a distance, but the home team was rightly lit, and repetitions showed a clear foul by Sarr to win the ball. A VAR check excluded the gate and also spared the blushing of Sanchez. Onlu was recently restored to the team after being dropped, which was beaten far too easily.
But at that moment was almost embarrassing, Sanchez released himself with a large rescue service in the last minute of the 90 to prevent the son from compensating for the long post. After Brennan Johnson’s Low Cross started the Spaniard over the gate to stand in the way of the nearby shot.
Take a look at Chelsea’s player reviews against Tottenham.
With eight games that can still be played, Chelsea replaced in the top 4 of the Premier League in Manchester City, which won over Leicester City 24 hours earlier.
It is likely that the top 5 will get a place in the Champions League of the next season due to the strong achievements of English clubs in Europe. But Newcastle United is also in the mix and has a game against Crystal Palace in her hand, so every point is not important.
Chelsea only separate two points on the fourth place, with Newcastle in sixth place. Aston Villa is still only two points further in the seventh and makes it super competitive.
Chelsea has not participated in the Champions League since 20222/23 and the return to the Elite stage in Europe is not only enormous for prestige, but also for finances.
For the first time in a Premier League season, Spurs 16 lost their first 30 games – more than half. After a 15th defeat in the last month, Verzecoglou described it as “unacceptable”, but his team has now exceeded this to make it the most league losses in a 2003/04 season.
On this occasion, Spurs lost 19 times and took the 14th place in a campaign with 38 games. This still has time to correspond or even sink.
This game was also an undesirable club record for Posetecoglou and was the first Spurs boss to lost each of his first four encounters with Chelsea.
In the creation of this game, Enzo Maresca suggested that Jadon Sancho’s production was not good enough this season and that the winger, who remains a regular starter, has to “shoot more”.
He was generally involved in Chelsea’s attacking game and forced Guglielmo Vicario an excellent rescue in the final phase of the first half. But it was his only effort in a performance that only lasted 68 minutes and lacked a final ball.
Sancho’s future beyond this season remains uncertain. His loan from Manchester United contains a purchase obligation, but Chelsea can assume GBP 5 million. Even if the blues take the former English winger permanently, they are still made to sell him, and according to the rumor Sancho would ideally like to connect Borussia Dortmund for a third spell.
Nicolas Jackson was back in the Chelsea line -up for the first time in two months after recovering from a thigh injury. It is certainly a thrust when you consider that the blues lacked a striker in his absence, but he went without a goal before he was injured, and this drought was expanded to nine in this excursion.
It could have been very different, since a rebound from him met the post in the first minute, while at least in the first half it made the best of it.
But Jackson stays stuck from the campaign after nine league goals and it will not help his cause, since Chelsea is on the market for a new number for a new number this summer.
There was only one goal in the end result, but in truth Chelsea’s performance would have justified a larger rim.
Tottenham’s inadmissible equalizer was against the course of the game and the important late rescue of Robert Sanchez was never really looked like a goal.
Dominic Solanke was starved against his former club. His 21 Touch of the Ball were the least of an outdoor field player who completed the full game, and only one of them was in the Chelsea box.
It was not a classic of all time and certainly did not remain the fiery “battle of the bridge” from 2016, but there was still an element from Derby Spice, which ensured that the game kept a certain advantage.
Cristian Romero and Trevoh Chalobah were booked in the first half in the first half and some other hard challenges and other potential lightning points threatened to cook at different times.
Pape Sarr and Moises Caicedo had a little spit and a verbal exchange just a few moments before the potential compensation of the former was excluded on the latter for a foul.
In a world in which the professional football from TOP level can at some point can immerse yourself in the vanilla, it was refreshing to see the grit and character that existed in this case.