Chelsea 4-0 Tottenham: Mourinhos relentless march towards the Title continues as Spurs are shattered at the Bridge When Jan Vertonghen gifted Chelsea their opening goal, the groans from Tottenham’s dugout would have been echoed in north London and the North-West. There is less hope for Arsenal, Liverpool and even Manchester City to be champions. Chelsea lead the table by seven points and five of their next six opponents lie in the bottom half of the table. ‘Little Horse’ Mourinho can try to dampen expectations all he likes, but nobody is fooled. Chelsea are unbeaten in the League in 2014 and, as they showed on Saturday, once in front they are utterly ruthless. For 56 minutes, the game plan set out by Tim Sherwood and Spurs to stifle Chelsea, with Kyle Walker surprisingly used as a winger and Aaron Lennon at No 10, had worked. Then, came Vertonghen’s double folly. First, the Belgian slipped as he tried to turn inside to stop Andre Schurrle closing him down. Then, in a desperate attempt to retrieve the situation, he stuck out a leg and succeeded only in playing the perfect pass for Samuel Eto’o. The Cameroon striker, drafted into in the starting line-up minutes before kick-off when Fernando Torres injured his groin in the warm-up, finished easily. His ‘old man’ celebration, poking fun at Mourinho’s recent comments questioning his official age of 32, lifted the atmosphere and transformed a close game into a Chelsea romp. Spurs manager Sherwood, who refused to bite at Gary Lineker’s suggestion that he’d named a ‘pick ’n’ mix line-up’, was peeved at referee Michael Oliver for giving a spot-kick after a tangle between Eto’o and Younes Kaboul. But he saved most of his anger for his own players and their meek surrender after playing so well for an hour. ‘We have capitulated too often and again today,’ he said. ‘It is disappointing to see: 2-0 down to Chelsea you are not going to win the game, but you expect to see a little bit more gut and a little bit of feather-rustling. I don’t want to be the only one who shouts at them (the players). I think they need to dig each other out. I am gutted, not about the result but on the capitulation the team have shown this season.’ Of Tottenham’s top-four hopes now, he replied: ‘Slim.’ He added: ‘It all went Pete Tong (wrong) after the first goal. I appreciate referees have a tough job and have to make a tough call but it could well have gone against us. I think it is a soft decision because I didn’t think it was a penalty.’ Interestingly, Sherwood believes City can still pip Chelsea and deny Mourinho a third Premier League title because of their extra firepower. Less plausible was Mourinho’s assertion that he would rather be in City’s position — nine points behind Chelsea but with three games in hand and a superior goal difference. ‘If they win all their matches, they are champions. We can’t say the same so I would prefer to be them,’ he said. After a goalless first half, Mourinho the master tactician did it again, hauling off Frank Lampard, who had been booked, and introducing Oscar, who narrowed the gaps between defence and attack. The manager said: ‘We can say the first goal was a mistake but the way Eto’o read it was fantastic. After that, it was easy to pass, easy to control, easy for me to be calm.’ Until Vertonghen’s blunder, Stamford Bridge was getting edgy as the fans feared a repeat of the 0-0 draw against West Ham in January, although on this occasion Spurs could not be accused of ‘19th-century tactics’ with Sandro and Kaboul forcing Petr Cech into good saves. The fine finish from Eto’o between Hugo Lloris’s legs opened the floodgates however. Just four minutes later, Kaboul felt aggrieved to be shown a red card though Eto’o had got goalside of him and there seemed to be contact. Eden Hazard planted the penalty down the middle and Mourinho had little sympathy for Spurs. ‘I have complained about referees before, as you know, but not when I lost 4-0. It has to be more than that,’ he said. With Sandro being used as an emergency centre-half and other players still in unfamiliar positions, it was little surprise when Chelsea boosted their goal difference late on. Substitute Demba Ba could not miss from four yards when Sandro fell in front of him. Even more bizarre was the final goal, Lloris and Walker attempting a ridiculous ‘one-two’ that fell kindly for the Senegal striker. Match facts Chelsea: Cech 6, Ivanovic 6, Cahill 6, Terry 6.5, Azpilicueta 7, Lampard 5 (Oscar 46, 6.5), Matic 7.5, Ramires 6.5, Hazard 8, Schurrle 6 (Willian 66, 6), Eto’o 8 (Ba 76, 7) Subs: Mikel, Salah, Schwarzer, Kalas. Manager: Jose Mourinho 7.5 Yellow: Lampard, Azpilicueta Goals: Etoo 56, Hazard 60, Ba 88, 89 Spurs: Lloris 5.5, Naughton 5, Dawson 6 (Fryers 72, 5), Kaboul 4, Vertonghen 4.5, Sandro 6, Bentaleb 5, Walker 5.5, Sigurdsson 5 (Paulinho 61, 5.5), Lennon 5, Adebayor 5.5. Subs: Soldado, Townsend, Chadli, Friedel, Kane. Manager: Tim Sherwood 6 Yellow: Bentaleb, Naughton, Sandro Red: Kaboul Referee: Michael Oliver 7. Attendance: 41,598 Man of the Match: Eden Hazard
Posted on: Sun, 09 Mar 2014 06:55:47 +0000
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