[1]We continued our unbeaten start to the season yesterday winning a thrilling London derby against Tottenham at White Hart Lane.
Juan Mata scored a brace with Gary Cahill and Daniel Sturridge also on target as there was no revenge for Andre Villas-Boas; his side losing to his former team.
We initially took 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. The first 45 minutes was defined by two volleys. Initially a badly mishit shot by Gallas from a Gylfi Sigurdsson corner trickled wide from seven yards. The second by Chelsea 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.
We then should have doubled our 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 when the Chelsea defence fell asleep. Tom Huddlestone’s free-kick appeared to be drifting off the pitch but Jan Vertonghen kept the ball alive allowing Gallas to head home from the goal-line.
Five minutes later Tottenham took the lead as Defoe scored. Aaron Lennon appeared to be attempting to shoot from the right but Defoe reacted more quickly than anyone to 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 two minutes, as Juan Mata scored twice with more than a helping hand from Gallas.
On 65 minutes Mata picked up a Gallas woeful clearance and drilled a perfect clean finish into the bottom corner with his left foot to equalize.
Mata has been in wonderful form so far this season so it was little surprise that he was the man to score our third goal of the afternoon. First he evaded Gallas’ attention who could only watch on as Eden Hazard’s wonderful slide pass to him put Mata through and he raced on to convert one-on-one past Friedel to send the Chelsea fans into Euphoria.
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 who else but Juan Mata.
Roberto Di Matteo was understandably delighted having seen his side record our first league victory at White Hart Lane since 2005
It was a result made all the more impressive given the fact that after going in at the break 1-0 up a poor start to the second half saw us quickly fall 2-1 behind and the Blues manager felt it was a well-deserved three points.
Next up on Tuesday is an away Champions League fixture vs. Shakhtar Donetsk.
Gill Reeves – CSG disabled rep
Stats from the BBC website: [2]
Tottenham Hotspur
- 24 Friedel
- 05 Vertonghen
- 13 Gallas – Booked
- 28 Walker- Booked
- 33 Caulker
- 02 Dempsey (Adebayor – 74′ )
- 06 Huddlestone – Booked (Livermore – 67′ )
- 07 Lennon
- 22 Sigurdsson
- 30 Sandro
- 18 Defoe
Substitutes
- 25 Lloris
- 16 Naughton
- 20 Dawson
- 27 Falque
- 29 Livermore
- 31 Townsend
- 10 Adebayor
Chelsea
- 01 Cech
- 02 Ivanovic – Booked
- 03 Cole
- 04 David Luiz
- 24 Cahill
- 07 Ramires – Booked
- 10 Mata
- 11 Oscar (Sturridge – 83′ )
- 12 Mikel
- 17 Hazard (Lampard – 90′ )
- 09 Torres
Substitutes
- 22 Turnbull
- 28 Azpilicueta
- 34 Bertrand
- 06 Romeu
- 08 Lampard
- 13 Moses
- 23 Sturridge