Tottenham Hotspur found themselves on the wrong end of a seven-goal thriller on Sunday afternoon, falling to a 4-3 defeat at home to Chelsea.
Spurs romped into a commanding 2-0 lead but – not for the first time this season – had their stranglehold of the contest wrestled away. A combination of Tottenham’s collective incompetence and Chelsea’s rediscovered composure saw the visitors rattle in four goals.
Son Heung-min’s late strike to complete a ding-dong affair was too little too late for a Spurs side slumped in the bottom half of the table. Chelsea, in stark contrast, have closed the gap behind Liverpool to just four points.
How the game unfolded
Right from kick-off, there was a frenzied edge to this London derby. Beyond the utter chaos which unfolded on the pitch, the crowd had a crazed glint, heaving paper missiles from the stands as soon as any blue shirt came within ten yards of the pitch’s perimeter.
Marc Cucurella couldn’t blame a stray scrap of cardboard for twice slipping over in the buildup to Tottenham’s quick-fire double. Brennan Johnson gobbled up the first loose ball while Chelsea‘s left-back was left sniffing the turf, firing a cross into the box for Dominic Solanke to stab in.
Within a matter of minutes, Dejan Kulusevski made it 2-0 from another inadvertent Cucurella assist. The Swede tiptoed along the top of the box, delaying just long enough before reversing his shot beyond Robert Sanchez’s helpless dive.
Jadon Sancho halved the deficit inside the opening 17 minutes with a superb strike from the edge of the box, but the drama kept on pouring out of every orifice of this game.
Tottenham had the better of a chaotic opening 45 minutes, but Chelsea roared back after the break. Establishing a stranglehold of possession in the opposition half, Moises Caicedo won a penalty on the hour mark. After evading serious punishment for a rash tackle of his own, the energetic midfielder benefitted from Yves Bissouma’s reckless lunge, earning a spot-kick which Cole Palmer coolly converted.
The reinvigorated Enzo Fernandez fired Chelsea in front for the first time on Sunday, walking onto a deflected Palmer shot which he blasted beyond Fraser Forster.
Spurs kept on surging forward at every given opportunity, desperate to rectify another second-half implosion. However, the hosts only opened themselves up to the counter-attack. Pape Sarr was caught chasing one such break when he hacked at Palmer in the box for Chelsea’s second penalty of the game. Palmer brushed…
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