Chelsea 1-0 Tottenham: Premier League – as it happened
Key events
Time to sign off – I’ll leave you with David Hytner’s match report, and we’ll have more reaction and analysis online soon. Cheerio!
Here’s the full Sky interview with Ange Postecoglou. In terms of spiky post-defeat verbal tussles, it’s up there.
Maresca on the top four race: “Until the end, it’ll be close. We have been there all season. The first four months we were even better, now it’s up to us to finish well.”
Here’s Enzo Maresca. Going to stick my neck out and say this won’t be quite as feisty. “Happy with the result and performance, we’re close to the end of the season, [but] we played the way we want to play. We don’t like to finish the way we did, but I told them, if we want to become an important team, we need to win in an ugly way.”
“We deserved to win the game, created enough already in the first half. At the end, the team showed effort, spirit, togetherness – all things we need.” On Caicedo, he says: “He is one of the best defensive midfielders in the world. Every day he’s working, he’s serious, he’s humble. I thought Trev Chalobah had a fantastic game, too.”
Davison gamely presses on, and asks about the moment when he cupped his ear to fans after Sarr’s (eventually disallowed) goal. Postecoglou looks incredulous, and denies it was connected to the boos when he brought Sarr on – “I wanted them to cheer, I wanted them to be happy, mate – we’d just scored a cracking goal”.
He adds: “It’s not the first time in my career my substitutions have been booed. They’re allowed to boo, but I wanted them to cheer, because it was a cracking goal.” Has he lost a portion of the Spurs fans? “You’re trying really hard, that’s fine.”
“You’ve already decided what the outcome is. My view is it was a tight game, a really poor decision, everyone came through healthy, and we move to Sunday.” Davison tells him there’s “no agenda”. “That’s fine mate, no worries.” And off he goes.
On Sarr’s goal being disallowed: “[VAR] is killing the game, mate. We saw the game last night, and if we’d had Jared Gillett [tonight’s VAR] there, we’d have a different outcome. If the referee needed to watch [the foul] six times, how is that clear and obvious?”
He is then asked if he thought the goal should have counted, and accuses the interviewer, Patrick Davison, of “forcing him into a corner”. Davison says he thought it was a foul. “People like you will be happy, waiting on your couches for six minutes for ‘clear and obvious’ decisions.” Yikes. It’s all getting a bit spiky.
And here’s … Ange Postecoglou. “Difficult night, tight game – we had to work hard, let in a disappointing goal, fought back but couldn’t get anything out of it. In the front third, we could have been cleaner, but for the most part I thought we handled things pretty well. It’s a tough task coming here anyway, but I thought we showed signs of getting back to where we need to.”
Here’s Chelsea defender Levi Colwill: “The fans were amazing, they got us through that last 10 minutes. We knew how to hurt [Spurs] and we had way more chances. We need to win games, we’re fighting for the Champions League. We know they play a high line and we could use Nico Jackson in behind.
“I want to perform every game, and I haven’t done that at times this season. I’m learning from the gaffer, from Reece [James] all the time.[Maresca] is top, he tells me what I need to work on – he doesn’t just tell players they’re amazing.”
Here’s David Hytner’s match report – but we’ll keep going with reaction over here. It’ll be interesting to hear Ange Postecoglou’s post-game interview.
Ange Postecoglou is sending his players over to the away end to applaud the Spurs fans, but staying away himself. Perhaps it’s wise, given there is a bloke in a gilet giving every single player absolute pelters. Come on mate, it’s only a game.
“Can I be the first to wish everyone a Happy St Totteringham’s Day,” writes Arsène Wen Graham Fulcher.
Full time: Chelsea 1-0 Tottenham
Chelsea climb to fourth with a narrow, but deserved victory earned by Enzo Fernández’s second-half header. Moisés Caicedo and Spurs’ Pape Matar Sarr saw goals disallowed by VAR on another tough night for Ange Postecoglou, whose team were distinctly second best.
103 mins: In fact, Chelsea have time to break and Djed Spence joins the yellow-card party with a hack on Madueke. Ten bookings in total now, five for each side.
102 mins: Vicario launches it forward, Son collects and finds Tel – but his cross is headed clear by Cucurella. That may be that …
101 mins: Time almost up for Spurs, who are taking far too long to get the ball upfield.
99 mins: Johnson – who was booked moments ago – hoofs the ball into the hoardings, but escapes a second yellow card. Three minutes to go.
98 mins: Bentancur does win a corner now. Can Spurs make it count? No – it’s headed away and Dewsbury-Hall wins a free kick off Johnson.
97 mins: Porro thinks he should have a corner – and he’s right – but badly oversteps the mark by screaming at the assistant referee. He’s booked for his transgression.
96 mins: Halfway through injury time, and this has the feel of two exhausted prize-fighters leaning into each other.
95 mins: Solanke makes a storming run upfield and plays it left to Tel. After it’s worked around the edge of the area it comes back to Tel, Madueke failing to intercept – but the substitute’s cross is easy enough for Sanchez to claim.
94 mins: Vicario comes a long way off his line to get the ball and sidestep Neto, causing Spurs fans a brief moment of panic.
93 mins: Solanke, who’s not had his best game tonight, is penalised for a handball as he tried to bring the ball down.
90 mins: 12 [TWELVE] minutes of stoppage time. Don’t go anywhere! Palmer and Fernandez, architects of the only goal that’s counted so far, are replaced by Tosin Adarabioyo and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall.
89 mins: From nowhere, Spurs almost equalise! Johnson gets forward down the right and cuts back to Son at the far post, whose shot is on target – but Sanchez gets across to block it. The under-fire keeper is promptly mobbed by his teammates.
88 mins: More Spurs changes, Van de Ven and Maddison replaced by Pedro Porro and Mathys Tel.
86 mins: Pedro Neto is the latest Chelsea name in the book; it’s beem a scrappy, spiky spell of play since Sarr’s disallowed goal.
Worth noting that, when Sarr scored for Spurs, Postecoglou cupped an ear towards the travelling fans who had booed the decision to take Bergvall off. I guess he can claim the point still stands, even though the goal didn’t count.
82 mins: Reece James is coming on for Nicolas Jackson. He slots in at right-back, with Malo Gusto moving upfield – and Gusto immediately tests Vicario with a deep cross towards Madueke, now operating as Chelsea’s centre forward.
80 mins: The wall does its job, getting up to deflect Maddison’s effort behind for a corner, which he will take.
79 mins: Son is well marshalled on the left side, but manages to draw a foul – and Tottenham have a dangerous free kick, 25 yards out …
78 mins: Fernandez gets behind the Spurs defence with an outrageous piece of skill, and sees his cutback saved by Vicario. Tottenham break away …
76 mins: Gusto does well to force a goal kick with Son putting pressure on him. Caicedo and Sarr are still squabbling after those two flashpoints in quick succession.
74 mins: Another Chelsea free kick, which Fernandez takes from the right flank and is cleared away. Robert Sanchez might also be relieved that Sarr’s goal didn’t stand – he should have get kept the shot out.
73 mins: Sarr is booked, Pawson applying salt to the wounds – and then Cucurella gets a yellow card for dissent. This game is bubbling nicely now …
Sarr goal disallowed for Spurs
Replays suggest it was a foul, and the goal should be chalked off – Pawson, perhaps not wanting to overrule his initial instincts, takes his sweet time, but eventually agrees.
SPURS GOAL?! Wow. Moments later, Sarr nicks the ball from Caicedo in midfield, moves forward and hits a low shot that Sanchez can only palm into the roof of the net. Spurs are level, and Chelsea are livid – they think Sarr fouled Caicedo to win the ball … and Craig Pawson is heading to the monitor.
68 mins: Sarr looks to draw contact from Caicedo before going over in stages – the referee’s not interested, and nor should be be.
67 mins: Jackson is booked for an off-the-ball shove, while Noni Madueke is on for Chelsea, replacing Jadon Sancho.
