Hello and welcome to the highlights of the Premier League clash between Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea in London . You're joining me, Lavanya , as we get through a game involving Jose Mourinho's present and former club.
Thanks for joining me on the live coverage of this game. Until next time, this is goodbye and goodnight from us all here at Sportstar!
An ecstatic Lampard even threw his jacket into the crowd, as he should. The student has, after all, beaten the teacher.
Christmas has come early for the Blues. Lampard's boys seal a remarkable win over Mourinho's Spurs in a game very unfortunately marred by racism. Willian starred with a brace in the first half to give Chelsea an early lead. Mourinho came back with a change in strategy in the second half but a generally lethargic Tottenham could not do anything to manage a shift in momentum. This was a physical game with yellow cards flying around. Heung-Min Son was also shown a red card after kicking Rudiger after being fouled. The Chelsea player was allegedly racially abused, signalling to the referee about monkey chants directed at him. Kepa had a bottle thrown at him too, all prompting a stadium announcement and hopefully prompting an investigation and stadium ban for those involved. This game belonged to Chelsea and Chelsea alone and the boys should savour a game rightfully claimed as theirs.
THERE COMES THE FULL TIME WHISTLE. It's done. Chelsea has won. What a game for Lampard's boys!
If Chelsea wins this game (which it looks poised to do) it will be the first club to beat one Premier League in three different venues away.
Chelsea fans are shouting, "You're not so special anymore." Don't we know, who that is directed at now.
90+3' MISS! Blues continue to press. Willian manages a pass to Batshuayi but the resulting shot from Willian has gone a little too wide. Imagine if that had gone through? On the other hand, we have a Spurs team that has not managed a single shot on target tonight.
And a dull second half, marred by racist chants, finds itself with eight extra minutes here. What can the Spurs manage? Mourinho looks defeated. Chelsea the kryptonite to the Spurs' new manager bounce?
85' Alli comes down and Zouma is shocked. Just outside the penalty area. VAR checks and a
free kick has been given to the Spurs. What comes off it is another corner for the Spurs. Chelsea gets the ball on the counter - Willian the man- and runs down the box but squanders the ball, courtesy a vital block from Erikssen.
We also see, replays show Rudiger telling his skipper that he's hearing
monkey chants, at which point Azpilicueta goes over to Taylor to relay what has happened. Everything about this is sad. A stadium announcement has also been made though.
Onus on Tottenham to ensure the perpetrators are identified and banned.
79' Double substitution for Chelsea.
Michy Batshuayi
IN | Tammy Abraham
OUT Captain Azpilicueta
OUT | Reece James
IN. Azpilicueta is holding his hamstring. Worrying for the skipper.
78' YELLOW.
Rudiger runs through Sanchez and gets a yellow. He comes back and pats him on the back of the head. The yellow does not matter.
Sources including
The Guardian suggests that the bottle thrown at Kepa was not the reason for a pause in play earlier. Apparently, a racist remark was made directed at Anthony Rudiger after Son was shown the red card. How long will this go on? Disappointing now.
Substitution:
Vertonghen
OUT | Rose
IN AND Moura
OUT | Ndombele
IN
69' Mourinho stepped on to the pitch there. He is furious and here's why.
Aurier believes he was fouled. Mourinho believed he was fouled. The entire stadium thinks he was fouled too. But Anthony Taylor does not and that's that.
SUBSTITUTION
(Chelsea): Jorginho
IN | Mateo Kovacic
OUT
66' Another yellow. The Spurs are all over the place.
Apparent handball from Alderweireld and he gets shown the card.
The referee has come down to the touchline and he's being shown some activity by the post. Bottles being thrown at Kepa here. The fans are unforgiving but this is not right. The Guardian reports that Kepa asked for some sanity from the crowd at which point a little boy called him a wanker. This will be addressed seriously when this game finishes.
61' SON SENT OFF FOR VIOLENT CONTACT.
Second of the season for him. The first was taken back but this clearly won't. Kane comes to pat him on the back in consolation. Mourinho is protesting on the touchline. He doesn't see the logic here. Third red card of the calendar year for Son.
60' PHYSICALITY!
Rudiger fouls Son and he comes down but then he also pushes his studs into Rudiger's chest. Why was that necessary at all? VAR to check for violent contact and the stadium has a loud boo up!
Replays suggest that Abraham was offside there so eitherway that goal does not stand.
50' CHANCE!
Mount has had a great game tonight and that continues. He sends a lovely pace to Abraham but oh, he has passed it back to Mount where it finds Alderweireld instead. What a miss that. Would have been 3-0 there for Lampard's boys.
We have a change in formation as well, seems like. Mourinho is going with a 3-4-1-2 plan now.
Substitution
(Spurs): Christian Eriksen
IN | Eric Dier
OUT
Was that a potential red card opportunity for the Spurs? Well, they survived and we expect an equally physical game heading into the second half here.
Half-time: Chelsea leads Tottenham 2-0 in North London, courtesy a brilliant brace from Willian. Mourinho must be mad and we'd rather not imagine what the Spurs dressing room looks like right about now, but there's no denying that they have been hapless here in the first half. Can they do better here on? Stay with us to find out.
Mourinho walks off into the tunnel after that spot kick. I am anxious thinking about what's in store for Kane and his men in the dressing room.
45+2: GOAL! Willian comes in with intent but gently nudges the ball into the right corner and its 2-0 Chelsea. Lampard pumps the air and sits down calmly. "He must be doing cartwheels inside. Meanwhile, is this the day Mourinho's 'nice guy' mask comes off?" asks the broadcaster.
VAR checks. Penalty to Chelsea. Spurs fans are incredibly unhappy. Willian will take this kick.
45+1:HOWLER. Gazzaniga come off his line. CLEARLY misses the ball and rams into Alonso cleaning him out completely. Oh but the referee has ruled in the favour of Spurs, giving them a free kick. How absolutely bizarre! VAR checks.
Two extra minutes here.
Chelsea has been great here in the past few minutes, especially after that little piggyback incident.
41' SCUFFLE. Alli and Kovacic find themselves in the middle of something here. The midfield suddenly saw so much activity and the ball was being passed around. Alli lost the ball and in his pursuit literally climbs Kovacic. And no, the Blues will have none of it and there's a full-blown scuffle here, players being separated. Alli and Kovacic get a yellow and as a result, Kovacic will miss Chelsea's Boxing Day fixture against Southampton on suspension.
39' Men down. Sissoko and Kane are running down, passing the ball to each other as they come into the box. Sissoko has the ball but the Arrizabalaga, Chelsea keeper has come off his line and slides straight into Sissoko, kicking the ball off in the process. But, both men are down. We have a huddle now at the Chelsea goal. VAR checks for foul play. None found.
Here's what the numbers say at the 37th minute of this game:
Possession: 35% TOT - CHE 65%
Shots: 2 TOT-CHE 6
Corners: 0 TOT-CHE 4
The momentum has quite clearly shifted though. Chelsea isn't the team at the wheel anymore, evidently. Tottenham still has work to do before it can zoom away with the game. We have officially plateaued, for now.
33' Sissoko is down. He is holding his left leg. Meanwhile, the broadcasters are having a great time discussing Mourinho's moody tantrums from before and his transformation into Prince Charming since setting foot in Tottenham's pastures. So gossipy. Where's my popcorn?
31' Yellow! Kane is furious as Zouma blocks him from taking a free kick. No doubts there and the referee pulls out his book.
29' Kane has the ball now and sprints down the right to manage a low cross that finds Son at the far post. A left-footed shot doesn't manage to do any damage though. Much better from Tottenham this. The side is out of its own half and that's great news for Mo's men, but more importantly, the chances are slowly being created.
28' Abraham gets a ball to his face and he's down momentarily. Mourinho looks on from the touchline and is not impressed. "Did you really need to go down for that one? Why the drama," he must be thinking. What do you think that face meant? I am going to try and get you a visual of that meme-worthy expression. Bear with me.
28' FIRST CHANCE FOR THE SPURS. Sissoko charges into the right and cuts one back towards Harry Kane, who takes the shot but goes high over the bar. Not great for Tottenham but the men in white are slowly getting into the paces of this game.
Whatever strategy Tottenham came in with is not really working for them. The Spurs need to be a little more instinctive. There's something very held back about how they're operating here tonight. Tottenham is not able to get the ball into the middle to angle it into its own half.
24' Mount and Dier are at it again, but Mount manages to gain possession running through the centre to the left of the goal. He cleverly dribbles past the defenders and shoots one to the far post but it too wide and no damage done for the Spurs, who would have definitely had their hearts in their mouths right now.
19' Quiet few minutes after that brilliant shot from Willian. Oh but what do we have here? Man down. Mount has brought down Dier. No card though here. The fans have started talking and the frustration is evident. Spurs have been ordinary with the 20 minutes of this game having gone by.
18' Free kick and Dele Alli takes it. Inconsequential. The grimaces are on in the expressions of the players in white.
11' GOAAL!
Far too easy here. Willian manages a great sprint resulting in a right-footed shot bending into the post on the right. Absolutely stunning and protege leads the master 1-0. Well deserved lead here for the Blues and (more than) one half of the stadium goes quite.
10' Is it just me or has Tottenham been incredibly passive here? The Spurs are letting Lampard's men take their chances.
8' The game is now unfolding dangerously in Tottenham's penalty area. At the other end, Chelsea has come in with three defenders today focussing more on the midfield and its srikeline.
Lampard has most number of wins against Tottenham in his playing career but he also lost the League Cup to this very team, also getting his first ever red card against this team.
7' First corner for Chelsea. A messy attempt at a header sees the ball run down to the sides here. Kante's cross finds Abraham but he's not able to do that any justice. Dele Alli is not happy with how that was handled by the home team's defense. Boos from the crowd here. No harm done from the corner.
3' Slow start to the game here in North London. The atmosphere is electric though. Absolute madness and the decibel level is just something else.
Chelsea, at one stage, was unbeaten for 32 games against Tottenham. Chelsea has more goals and wins against Tottenham than against any other team in the Premier League. Both teams come in with a mixed-bag kind-of season. So it will be interesting to see what happens in this game.
0' KICKOFF! And we begin at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium.
LINE-UPS:
Tottenham : Gazzaniga, Aurier, Alderweireld, Sanchez, Vertonghen, Dier, Sissoko, Dele, Son, Lucas, Kane
Subs : Subs: Vorm, Foyth, Rose, Winks, Ndombele, Lo Celso, Eriksen
Chelsea : Kepa, Rudiger Tomori, Zouma, Azpilicueta, Kante, Kovacic, Alonso, Willian, Abraham, Mount
Subs : Caballero, Christensen, James, Jorginho, Hudson-Odoi, Pulisic, Batshuayi
Who are you rooting for tonight? Vote here.
MATCH PREVIEW: Master vs apprentice
When Jose Mourinho took over as Tottenham boss last month, his side was 12 points behind Frank Lampard's Chelsea and looked out of the running for the top four.
But Spurs will leapfrog its London rival into fourth place in the Premier League if it comes out on top on Sunday in a match pitting the grizzled Portuguese veteran against one of his key players during their time together at Stamford Bridge.
It is not the first time the pair have locked horns from opposing dugouts. Lampard came out on top last season when he took his Derby side to play Manchester United at Old Trafford in the League Cup, but both have since moved on to new clubs.
Chelsea has stumbled in recent weeks, losing four of its past five Premier League matches, with the boss hinting at striking reinforcements in the January transfer window.
The mood is different at Spurs. Former player Ledley King said confidence was back and the top four was a realistic goal.
“(Mourinho) is a winner,” he told Sky Sports . “He's won everything. From my experience if someone like that comes into your club you listen, you take everything on board and you try to soak up as much as you can.”
WHERE TO WATCH?
You can watch the live stream on Star Sports Select 1 and Star Sports Select 1 HD. You can also watch the live stream on Hotstar.
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