Tottenham 0-2

Independent:

Tottenham Hotspur 2 Chelsea 0

Dele Alli shines in memorable victory as Spurs halt Blues in their tracks

Mauricio Pochettino's men put in a spirited and resilient performance to stop the visitors from securing a 14th consecutive league victory

Jack Pitt-Brooke at White Hart Lane

Chelsea will have to make do with sharing their place in the record books. Their historic 13-game winning streak ended last night, finally running into a juggernaut of another colour. Tottenham Hotspur did to Chelsea what Chelsea have done to everyone else since October. They beat them with tactics, with effort, with skill and, above all, with power. If this was a clash of two steamrollers then Spurs brought the latest model, achieving the same result as they did against Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City three months ago.

The result leaves Chelsea five points clear of Liverpool and propels Spurs up to third, above City and Arsenal. Mauricio Pochettino’s team are certainly playing far better than either of those much richer sides right now, and are now, for the first time this season, looking just like the team who should really have won the Premier League title last season.

This win had deep roots, all the way back in that dramatic collapse last spring. Eight months ago Chelsea gleefully sabotaged Tottenham’s title run. This time Spurs took great pleasure in ending Chelsea’s own history bid.

The two games had one shared start, as Spurs took a 2-0 lead, just as they did in the battle of Stamford Bridge. That day Spurs wilted under pressure, and lost their heads, which Pochettino blamed on their lack of maturity and experience. This time, Spurs kept their heads, the lead and the three points. There were no scuffles, no red cards and no violence. It was a good clean fight and one that Spurs won by a distance.

Spurs were the better team throughout, but won the game by scoring the same goal twice, just before half-time and just after. Kyle Walker passed to Christian Eriksen, who crossed to Dele Alli, galloping towards the far post, leaping, and heading past Thibaut Courtois. They were Alli’s sixth and seventh goals in the last four games, an implausibly good run showing that, like his whole team, last season was not just a one-off.

Those two Alli goals were also a vindication for Pochettino, and his decision to stick with a 3-5-2 system in which Alli is essentially playing as a second striker behind Harry Kane. Pochettino sees Alli as his “wild horse” and wants to free him from defensive duties. He has been emphatically rewarded, as Alli’s instinctive runs into the box and ruthless finishing make him almost impossible to stop.

From the start here it was clear that Spurs were sharper, fresher and stronger than Chelsea, even though they have had less rest recently. Pochettino’s coaching tries to make his players peak at the right times and they are playing better football right now, with more speed and drive, than they have since Chelsea stuck a spanner in their works last year.

Mousa Dembele was untouchable in central midfield, with Victor Wanyama as his enforcer sat just behind. With Eriksen floating around as a third man they could out-number Nemanja Matic and Ngolo Kante in midfield, causing Chelsea problems that Conte did not know how to solve. Eriksen shot wide from distance, then broke free again, forcing Gary Cahill to bring him down and take the yellow. Eric Dier nearly scored from Danny Rose’s free-kick.

Rose and Walker were dominating their counterparts in the wing-back areas, a double vindication for Pochettino making them his two most important players this year. Chelsea had to kick Rose to stop him and it was when Marcos Alonso could not get out to Walker that the opening goal came. He squared to Eriksen, who looked up and crossed, to where Alli had found space to run into and head back across goal.

This made it so surprising when, nine minutes into the second half, Chelsea conceded precisely the same goal a second time. Again, Walker on the right, free from Alonso. Again, Eriksen, floating in space. Again, Alli at the far post, between Moses and Azpilicueta. If this header was from closer range that was the only difference.

Chelsea had a brief flurry straight after half-time, when Hazard missed a close-range header and Moses went down in the box looking for a penalty. But that was as much as they could muster. It was clear when Spurs went 2-0 up that Chelsea had nothing left in the tank.

Conte tried to go for it, putting Willian on for Alonso, switching to an attacking 3-2-5. But Spurs could drop into a 5-4-1 easily enough, and when Harry Winks came on for Dembele they had even more control. Spurs managed to see the game out with remarkable ease, looking like a completely different side from the one that collapsed in tearful rage against Chelsea back in May. Lloris barely had a save to make and no-one watching this game in ignorance would have said that Chelsea were the presumed champions.

Of course they are allowed an off-day and are still title favourites. But why shouldn’t another team in London have an eye on that trophy too ?


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Guardian:

Tottenham’s Dele Alli scores two to end Chelsea’s winning run short of record

Daniel Taylor at White Hart Lane

The most damaging part for Chelsea, suffering their first league defeat since losing against Arsenal at the end of September, has nothing to do with it stopping 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 a team with their ambitions will be far more distressed about what it means for the league table and the confidence it might give Tottenham Hotspur, 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 opposition songs poking fun that they “won the league in black and white”, referring to the fact that the last time the team from White Hart Lane finished as champions was back 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.

It still counts as a remarkable feat even if that will be little consolation as they reflect on a sapping night against one of the teams they find it particularly difficult to lose to. Chelsea have tended to have easily the better of these encounters: this was their fifth defeat out of 50 Premier League meetings. Yet Spurs, lest it be forgotten, were high on confidence on the back of their own productive run of form.

They have now won five successive league fixtures. Their prize is to go third and push Arsenal down to fifth, and Mauricio Pochettino can reflect on a hugely satisfying evening’s work bearing in mind his switch to a 3-4-2-1 formation, deliberately set up to nullify Chelsea’s wing-back system.

From Chelsea’s perspective, perhaps the most disappointing aspect of the performance was that as soon as Alli scored his second, nine minutes after the break, the home team were rarely endangered. Until that point, nobody could doubt Chelsea’s effort or that, at 1-0 down, this was a side that seemed mortally offended by the idea of losing.

After that, however, there was not a great deal of personality from the team in blue and the home supporters could bask in one of those nights, under the floodlights, when it felt like a tremendous pity White Hart Lane, as we know it, is being lost to the bulldozers.

It was strangely meek from Chelsea given there was still time to save themselves and it was out of character, too, given there were other parts of the match when it was clear to see the competitive qualities that had helped them reach the league’s summit.

At one point in the first half Diego Costa 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 two players were still chuntering away at one another the next time play stopped. It never looks good when two team-mates are arguing on the pitch but those were the moments when we could be absolutely certain how much this contest mattered to Chelsea.

Equally, Costa did not do an awful lot in the last 35 minutes when his team really needed some extra inspiration and after an encouraging start to the second half their performance was perhaps epitomised by the moment, at 1-0, when Eden Hazard had a headed opportunity to equaliser. Hazard, for all his gifts, is not a natural in those positions but this was a particularly tentative effort, almost as if he was frightened of getting bashed in the process.

It was a spiky, absorbing contest, simmering with occasional tensions and passing reminders about the sporting enmity and lingering bad feeling from that wild and infamous encounter at Stamford Bridge last May. Alli will dominate the headlines but Victor Wanyama was the outstanding performer. Harry Kane found it difficult to get away from Gary Cahill but Alli now has seven goals in his past four games.

The strange thing about the latest two was their similarity. On both occasions it was the same three players linking up – first Kyle Walker, then Christian Eriksen and, finally, Alli. Walker’s determination to push forward had brought defenders towards him. Eriksen was in a better position to clip the ball into the penalty area and when Walker turned a short pass back the Dane picked out Alli with the right‑sided delivery. To complete the sense of deja vu, Alli had found space in between César Azpilicueta and Victor Moses on both occasions, scoring with two precise headers.

Chelsea might reflect the game could have taken an entirely different course if Hazard had done better with the chance that came his way, four minutes in, but that was their only clear opportunity of the opening half and, apart from a brief flurry early on, there was not a great deal else to trouble Hugo Lloris after the break.

Spurs were seldom threatened once Alli’s second header went in and they will miss these loud, triumphant nights when this stadium changes forever.

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Telegraph:

Tottenham 2 Chelsea 0: Dele Alli double ends Blues' 13 win streak

Jason Burt

When they play like this, when they pour forward, swarm around the pitch, with their young tyro Dele Alli scoring two predatory, carbon-copy goals, there are few more exhilarating sights than this Tottenham Hotspur side in full flow urged on by their demanding manager Mauricio Pochettino.

They were a lilywhite tidal wave under the White Hart Lane lights and they overwhelmed the Premier League leaders Chelsea, they ended their dreams of a record 14th consecutive win, and they halted this title race from becoming a blue procession.

Everyone has hope now. Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester City and Manchester United they all have hope. And Spurs too, of course, and the Premier League will be all the better for it despite Antonio Conte’s pre-match protestations of jealousy. Make no mistake, though, even after this curiously pallid performance, Chelsea are the team to beat. They still hold a five-point lead, a seven-point advantage over third-placed Spurs, and will hope this is nothing more than a wake-up call to go again. Conte will demand it and will surely make sure it happens.

Having beaten City in a similar fashion here then it raises the question, in fact, as to why Spurs are not closer to the top themselves. Still they have now won five league games in a row, they are gathering momentum, just as they did this time last season, and Alli has seven of the 15 goals they have scored – seven in four appearances, in fact, including three successive braces.

The 20-year-old midfielder – one of five England players from Spurs who started and being watched by manager Gareth Southgate – was man-of-the-match and rightly so and was substituted close to the end to a raucous, deserved reception. As he went back onto the pitch after the final whistle Pochettino waited for him and there was extra emphasis in the hug Alli eventually received.

Spurs have put down their marker. They will also feel a piece of revenge, a piece of pay-back, for the so-called Battle of the Bridge last May when they were two-nil up and, as Chelsea fans reminded them, messed it up (or more industrial words to that effect) to deliver the league title to Leicester City. They went two-nil up here and never, ever looked like surrendering that advantage and now it is simply a case of whether they can capitalise on this; how significant it is.


They lost their heads last May – but they used them here. From the tactics to the temperament, Spurs got it spot on in a high-tempo, relentless encounter. And Alli used his head also to score the goals – identical goals, in fact, with the same move resulting in the same movement and even involving the same players and with the same result. For the first, vitally just on the stroke of half-time, Christian Eriksen was given the time and the space from a Kyle Walker pass to tee up a right-wing cross with Alli ghosting between Cesar Azpilicueta and Victor Moses to guide a header back across Thibaut Courtois and into the net. It was strange defending for such a previously formidable back-line.

The second, not long into the second-half, was the same: Walker, to Eriksen with Alli heading home. It was slightly closer to goal but the Chelsea culpability was identical with David Luiz wandering out of position also and – strangely - N’Golo Kante unable to apply the usual pressure. It was two goals and the same goal.

Kante summed it up for Chelsea. He was nowhere near the standards he has set since his arrival in England and the visitors struggles were also caught in an unfamiliar spat between Pedro and Diego Costa – who scuffed a couple of chances to boot - when the former failed to read the latter’s intentions and a pass went astray and an opportunity begging. There has been little of that kind of rancour at Chelsea since it began to fracture under Jose Mourinho.


Pochettino had, predictably, matched up Conte with three at the back and faith in his wing-backs – Walker and Danny Rose – proving too much for Moses and Marcos Alonso. Eventually that was the case although Chelsea could, perhaps should, have gone ahead in the opening minutes when Nemanja Matic hoisted the ball into the space where the right-back usually is and Eden Hazard ran clear only to snatch at his cross-shot and send it beyond the far post. That could have changed everything.

Hazard was one of the few Chelsea players to perform while Spurs’ play-maker, Eriksen, became an increasing force and almost grazed a post with a shot of his own from just outside the area. The midfield battle was belonging to Spurs – Victor Wanyama and Mousa Dembele were proving too powerful for Kante and Matic – and the home side were clearly in the ascendancy.


The timing of Alli’s first goal helped. Suddenly Spurs had something to work with – plus the memory that they had blown it the last two times they had gone in front against Chelsea – and there was a switch when the second-half started with Conte’s team pressing and Hazard wasting another good opportunity as he made a hash of a close-range header. Again he probably should have scored.

It meant that the timing of Alli’s second goal was also extremely important as it punctured Chelsea’s mounting pressure and spread panic instead. The Spurs fans believed. The intensity was there on and off the pitch and Chelsea could not summon the response even as Conte ran through his substitutions, trying to engineer a change, as he sensed the scale of the struggle.


And so it ended. Spurs have reasserted themselves; having enjoyed an emphatic, goal-strewn festive period and had the added delight of dropping Arsenal down to fifth place. It was a whirlwind of a performance at White Hart Lane; white hot and Spurs have lit the touch-paper on this title race. Have they blown it wide open? Only time will tell. Chelsea remain overwhelming favourites, they are allowed this dip, this blip they will hope, but Spurs’ are on the march.



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Mail:

Tottenham 2-0 Chelsea:

Dele Alli continues stunning goalscoring form with a brace to end Blues' winning streak and open up the Premier League title race

By Martin Samuel for the Daily Mail

There is an old joke about two idiots watching a cowboy film. John Wayne rides his horse over a cliff. 'Let's watch it again,' says one of the idiots. He bets £5 on the outcome. Wayne rides his horse over a cliff again. 'I can't believe it,' says the idiot, paying up. 'I never thought the silly bleeder would do it a second time.'

That was pretty much like Chelsea on Wednesday night. They conceded one headed goal from Dele Alli just before half-time, and then just after half-time they conceded the same goal again.

Seriously, same goal. Same players in the build-up, same provider, same scorer, getting in between the same two defenders to find the net in the same way.


It was like watching an action replay, or attempting one of those spot-the-difference games with two near identical panels. The faces in the crowd would have been altered, the advertising hoardings, too. But the goals, the execution? They were as good as carbon copies.

Kyle Walker had the ball on the right and slipped it inside for Christian Eriksen. His cross was perfectly targeted and picked out Alli, who got between Victor Moses and Cesar Azpilicueta with limited resistance from Thibaut Courtois.

Alli's astutely positioned header sent the ball into the corner of the net in the direction from which it came. Take that as the description of the goal in the 54th minute, and the one in first-half injury time, too. You get two for the price of one here.


As Tottenham have done from Alli over the holiday period. Two goals against Southampton on December 28, two more against Watford on January 1, two more here.

Factor in the one against Burnley on December 18 and he now has seven goals in his last four league games. Those comparisons with Steven Gerrard in terms of impact and influence seem increasingly apt. Alli scored in Tottenham's other landmark result this season, too — the 2-0 win over Manchester City.

So has he blown the title race wide open? Well, not exactly. Chelsea are still five points clear, which any manager would take with a whoop of delight at this stage in the season, and few of their opponents will be as clinical as Tottenham were on Wednesday night.

Yet what Alli did was prevent this season becoming a procession. Had Chelsea won here many would have been planning their spring coronation in the first week of January. Tottenham would have been considered as good as out of it; Liverpool with a mountain to climb, the rest scrapping for the Champions League places.

Chelsea would also have set the all-time top division record for consecutive wins in one season, 14, with the psychological advantage that entails. Now they must go again. They have to visit Anfield at the end of the month. Even if they win every league game until that date, they could still end the night a mere two points clear.

This win said something about Tottenham, too, up to third place, although still seven points off Chelsea. Their recent form is impressive, but the opposition has been weak. Not so on Wednesday night. This was a Chelsea team in historic form, and they picked them off with hard work and outstanding organisation.

Chelsea had chances, of course, and should have equalised through Eden Hazard at the back post minutes before Tottenham went two ahead, but Tottenham's tenacity alone made them worthy winners. They left Chelsea's defence looking vulnerable again, and few have managed that since Antonio Conte switched to three at the back.


The first half was fast and furious but lacking the poisonous mood that marked the meeting between these teams at the end of last season.

With no Tottenham players to row with, Chelsea's players took to arguing with each other. In the 22nd minute, a Tottenham corner yielded a typical Chelsea counter-attack. Hazard burst away and found Diego Costa. He strode through and played a neat pass intended for Pedro, who failed to read it.

Costa was livid. In his mind, he was occupying Pedro's role, so Pedro should play his. This was clearly the run he would have made had the positions been reversed. Why couldn't Pedro see it? The heated dialogue continued while waiting for Hugo Lloris's goal-kick, and then through the next break in play, neither man backing down. At least it showed they cared is the cliched take, although other players probably care just as much without wasting energy bickering.

Sure enough, Costa gave the ball away in a dangerous position a minute later — Eriksen should have done better with his shot — then blasted his next chance high and wide, very much out of character considering his recent form.

Chelsea found it hard going all night, to be fair. Tottenham are very strong defensively and were working incredibly hard to contain the league leaders.

On one occasion Chelsea exchanged passes into double figures, neat, snappy, fast and impressive. They ended up pegged back in their own half, 50 yards downfield from where they started. It was like watching Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool at their best this season. Indeed, it is easy to forget they are not the only exponents of the high press. Mauricio Pochettino's team killed Manchester City earlier this season exactly the same way.

Not that the sting is ever completely removed from Chelsea. They are always dangerous and one pass is all it takes. In the fifth minute, Nemanja Matic clipped the ball over the top and Hazard was away. He should have done better than a low shot across goal that travelled just wide of the far post. Equally, David Luiz will be disappointed with a 25th-minute free-kick that flew harmlessly over the bar and a header in the 90th minute that took a similar flightpath.

Yet at the very least Tottenham showed Chelsea could be got at, even if few other teams possess the wit or energy to replicate this display. Victor Wanyama did a good job matching N'Golo Kante in midfield, while pressure led to mistakes at the back.

Gary Cahill headed the ball straight to Eriksen in the 38th minute, and could only respond by hauling him back in the most obvious fashion, taking the yellow card. It looked sloppy and unsightly — two words that have barely been associated with Chelsea since Conte switched to his preferred system.

Maybe the result was not such a great surprise considering Tottenham are yet to lose a home London derby in the Premier League under Pochettino. Even so, there will be more than a few taking encouragement from this.

Key questions remain, however. Could others do what Tottenham did to Chelsea? And will Conte ever again let his players make the same mistake twice? Observing him on the touchline, he really doesn't look the sort


GRAHAM POLL'S VERDICT

Atkinson masterclass in calm and efficiency

If the best referees are those who go through a game unnoticed, then Martin Atkinson is one of those.

His calm demeanour and refusal to give anything but the obvious meant he was anonymously efficient.

There were a couple of flashpoints, early on when Cesar Azpilicueta shoved Jan Vertonghen and then when Danny Rose clashed with Victor Moses. Both were defused calmly and effectively.

When players went to ground too easily, Harry Kane in particular, Atkinson ignored pleas for free-kicks.

The referee's only error came when he missed Moses being pushed just outside the area. Chelsea fans wanted a penalty but didn't get the free-kick they deserved.


TOTTENHAM (3-4-3): Lloris 6.5; Dier 7, Alderweireld 7.5, Vertonghen 7; Walker 7, Wanyama 7, Dembele 7.5 (Winks 74, 6), Rose 7.5; Eriksen 8, Kane 6.5 (Son 90), Alli 8.5 (Sissoko 86, 6)

Subs not used: Son, Vorm, Trippier, Wimmer, Davies

Goals: Alli 45' 54'

Booked: Wanyama, Alli, Rose

Manager: Mauricio Pochettino 8


CHELSEA (3-4-3): Courtois 6; Azpilicueta 6, Luiz 6.5, Cahill 6; Moses 5.5 (Batshauyi 85, 6), Kante 6.5 (Fabregas 79, 6), Matic 6.5, Alonso 5.5 (Willian 65, 6); Pedro 6, Costa 6, Hazard 6.5

Subs not used: Begovic, Ivanovic, Zouma, Chalobah

Booked: Pedro, Cahill

Manager: Antonio Conte 6


Referee: Martin Atkinson  6.5

Attendance: 34,491

MoM: Alli

Ratings by Sami Mobkel