Tottenham’s Dele Alli brings an end to Chelsea’s 13-match winning run
suffering their first defeat since losing
to Arsenal in the final week of September, has nothing to do with the
fact it stopped them establishing a
record in the Premier
League era of 14
successive wins in a single season. It
would have been a nice one to chalk up,
but they will be far more distressed
about what it means for the league table
and the confidence it might give Spurs,
seven points back, to think they can still
play a considerable part in the title
race.
Dele Alli’s goals certainly ought to
encourage Spurs on a night when their
supporters endured songs poking fun at
the fact they “won the league in black
and white,” referring to the fact that the
last time the team from White Hart
Lane finished champions was in 1961.
Alli scored one at the end of the first
half, and another early in the second
period. Both were headers and the
England international has managed two
goals in each of his past three games.
Alli is in the best scoring form of his life
and his latest brace was the most
important of the lot given its impact on
the top four and the braking effect it
had on the league leaders, arriving here
with their chests puffed out after 13
wins in a row.
The more staggering
statistic is that
Spurs began this
match with a mere
four wins out of
their 49 Premier
League assignments
against Chelsea . Yet
Pochettino’s men were also on a
productive run of form, after winning
their past four league fixtures and knew
that if they could extend that run to a
fifth game it would mean supplanting
Arsenal in fourth position.
Both teams had plenty of incentive,
even discounting all the sporting enmity
and lingering bad feeling from their
wild and infamous encounter at
Stamford Bridge last May, and that
made it a spiky, absorbing contest,
simmering with occasional tensions and
what felt like a number of thinly
disguised late challenges.
At one point Diego Costa, having shown
more restraint than usual at times this
season, seemed to forget he was
supposed to be irritating the opposition
defenders and turned on Pedro for not
being on the same wavelength to
receive a pass inside the penalty area.
The players were still chuntering away
at one another when the play next
stopped. Perhaps inevitably, Costa was
doing most of the talking. It never looks
good when two team-mates are arguing
on the pitch but, at the same time, it
was a measure about how much this
match mattered to Chelsea.
They looked the more rounded team in
the opening stages and a player with
Eden Hazard’s gifts probably ought to
have done better with the chance that
came his way, four minutes in, while
the home side were still trying to get to
grips with their experimental 3-4-2-1
system. Hazard, running on to Nemanja
Matic’s ball over the top, snatched at his
shot and that turned out to be their only
clear opportunity during the opening 45
minutes.
It had been an evenly contested first
half, with three minutes of stoppage
time ticking down, when Spurs took the
lead with a simplicity that must have
pained Conte. Kyle Walker was unable
to get enough space on the right to cross
the ball but, playing as a right-sided
wing-back, he had managed to draw
over Matic to double up on him with
Marcos Alonso. Christian Eriksen was in
a better position to clip the ball into the
penalty area and when Walker turned
the ball back to the Dane the cross
picked out Alli eight yards from goal.
Alli scored with an expertly angled
header and Chelsea were left
contemplating a second half where their
durability would be in question.
Within two minutes of the restart,
Costa’s low drive had forced Hugo Lloris
into a save at his right-hand post. That
was followed by a headed chance for
Hazard, perhaps the wrong player in
the right place. It was a tentative effort
but it had quickly become apparent that
Chelsea were going to give everything in
their attempt to rescue themselves.
Nobody could possibly doubt their effort or that we were watching a side who seemed mortally offended by the idea of losing.
Yet the wave of apprehension that
descended over this old stadium –
bringing us one of those nights when it
felt like a tremendous pity White Hart
Lane, as we know it, is being lost to the
bulldozers – was lifted as soon as Alli
doubled the lead in the 54th minute.
Aside from the fact the goal arrived at
the other end of the stadium, there was
a considerable amount of deja vu
attached to this moment. The same three players linked up – first Walker, then Eriksen and, finally, Alli. Eriksen lifted the ball into the penalty area and, just like the first goal, Alli had found space in between César Azpilicueta and Victor Moses.
Alli has scored seven goals in his past
four games and the latest gave his team
some valuable breathing space just at
the point when Chelsea looked capable
of finding an equaliser.
Spurs were seldom threatened again,
and they will miss these nights when the stadium changes forever.
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