Chelsea’s title ambitions took a hefty blow after a 2-1 loss to Tottenham at White Heart Lane.
Manchester United’s typically late win against Manchester City earlier in the day meant that the Blues lead had been cut down to a solitary point and so it remains, heading into the final three matches of the season.
Ancelotti reverted back to the side that won the FA Cup semi final against Aston Villa. That meant that Deco was preferred to Ballack in midfield, whilst Malouda and Joe Cole joined Drogba in attack. Ashley Cole and Branislav Ivanovic were both fit enough for the bench, in a welcome boost.
Roman Pavlyuchenko was preferred to Peter Crouch as Jermaine Defoe’s strike partner and it was the Russian who caused Chelsea early problems. However, Florent Malouda kept Spurs on their toes by twice testing goalkeeper Hereulho Gomes, who was up to the task.
Spurs though took the lead and after perhaps getting away with one last week, John Terry was the man penalised for handball. Despite missing six of his last ten attempts from the spot, Defoe drilled past Cech to convert the chance.
Cech made a good save from Pavyluchenko before John Obi Mikel was substituted with an injury, Ballack taking his place. Malouda had a goal disallowed for offside, before Spurs doubled their lead through Gareth Bale. The Welshman turned inside Ferreira before shooting with uncharacteristic accuracy with his right foot past Cech.
Ivanovic and Anelka were introduced at half time but the sending off of John Terry swung the game further in favour of Spurs. Gudjohnsen replaced Defoe as Spurs looked to retain possession and Lampard’s late goal was nothing more than a consolation strike for Chelsea, who will need to improve vastly if they are to complete the double.
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Gutted. They should have had 6. We were awful. The Spuds made us look slow, old, and dare I say average. My fear is we lose the cup, the league and then what? Are we really going to buy the 6/7 new players needed to replace the 30 year olds?
I look at the Yids squad, and just see them getting better and better. They are younger and faster. If we lost Lampard & Drogs long term, who would we have left? Ballack, leave over.
I can only imagine them beating us home – the Stamford Libray will never have been so quiet… Oh, it’s quiet every week. Anyway.
Terry is looking like he will be a real liability for the world cup.
He looks past it. He can’t keep up with the pace of the game and is turned far to easily. The back operation he had is said to be the problem. But he looked like a championship class defender oat the weekend and has done for some time now. Lets face it the bloke is probably now the most hated footballer in the Premiership and after what he did to his team mates missus followed by trying to break the leg of an England team mate he needs to be left at home for the World Cup. Michael Dawson is superior in every department. Spurs made look Chelsea look silly and totally dominated the game from start to finish. I couldn’t believe how easy it was to beat Chelsea, embarrasingly so. In the end the result could easily have been 4 or 5 nil.
I feel that the key to our defeat yesterday was the deployment of Ferreira at right-back. Gareth Bale tormented us in a way I have not seen a winger do in a long time – everything good that Tottenham did, which unfortunately was a lot, came down the left side. I have to admit to leaving WHL after John Terry got sent off to avoid the long walk to Seven Sisters being made worse by crowing Spurs fans, but up to that point, I thought Ivanovic handled him well.
He should be up there for our player of the season along with Malouda and Drogba. I wouldn’t complain if any of those three won it.
By yesterday I meant two days ago.