Match Report: Tottenham 1 Chelsea 1

Chelsea head into Christmas in fourth place after a pulsating one-all draw with Tottenham at White Hart Lane. Both sides had numerous chances to win the match, most notably Ramires’ free head from 6 yards with five minutes remaining in the second half.

The match started with Tottenham immediately on the attack and John Terry, who had a fantastic game against all advertisty, was paired with Branislav Ivanovic to stop the in-form Manu Adebayor. Unfortunately they didn’t count on poor defending from Obi Mikel, who was surprisingly preferred to Romeu as the defensive midfielder. Meireles lost the ball in midfield to a crunching Sandro tackle, and instead of coming across to provide support, Mikel stood still whilst Gareth Bale ran at a backtracking Bosingwa and a covering Ivo. Whilst the Chelsea defenders pushed Bale onto his favoured left foot and away from goal, the cross still came in and Petr Cech failed to deal with it adequetly and Adebayor was on hand to tap in.

The clown scores

Many Chelsea fans will again judge Cech’s lack of bravery as the ball across the turf could have been dealt with better and there was certainly evidence of a lack of conviction from Cech’s part. Adebayor was coming through at head level but Cech let the ball go through his hands. 1-0 to Spurs after 6 minutes, Chelsea again conceding an early goal against a top four team.

However, it didn’t take long for the Blues to draw level, with one of the Blues’ first pushes forward the ball was sent to Drogba who flicked a one-touch ball to Ashley Cole on the left. The ball appeared to ricochet on Cole’s arm, albeit accidentally, and he sent a wicked cross across the face of goal for the unmarked Sturridge to have the simplest of tap in’s. 1-1 after 22 mins.

Daniel Sturridge scores to make it honours even

Chelsea were forced into making changes as both Ivanovic and Mikel limped off, both to suspected hamstring injuries. Ivo’s injury would be of more concern, with Luiz already out, Terry facing a lengthy ban and Alex having submitted a transfer request. It was Bosingwa that slotted into CB to partner Terry, whilst Paolo Ferriera made his first start of the season. Bosingwa surprisingly looked assured in the role, and Ferreira played extremely well for a player that’s rarely seen game time in any competition. In fact his only appearances this season have been off the bench against Genk and also in a similiar situtation in the League cup.

Terry had a fantastic game and had a running feud with Adebayor

After the half time break, Chelsea adopted a shoot-on-sight policy which saw several strikes on goal in the first five minutes from Ramires, Sturridge and Meireles. Whilst the Blues were dominated early in the first half, they were by far the most dominating team at the opening of the second period. Romeu looked to have slowed down the effective Modric and Chelsea were stringing together fine passages of play.

Tottenham and Chelsea both looked likely to score, and John Terry marshalled Bosingwa and the rest of the troops well to deal with the half time introduction of Pavlyuchenko who was brought on to test the new centre-back combination.

Torres had little impact off the bench with 12 minutes of action

Then Ramires had the first of his two chances to win the game. First he was played through with a brilliant ball by Drogba and his first touch let him down, allowing Friedel to smother his strike on goal. At the other end Bale was up to his usual tricks and Ferriera was doing well to not allow Bale too much space to turn and run behind him. Good management by AVB, allowing Ferriera to stay back and not push forward creating space in the final 3rd for the Spurs winger.

Ramires then had the chance of the match for the Blues, as somehow he slipped through dodgy marking by Kyle Walker and had a free header on goal which he sent just wide. Romeu, on for the injured Mikel, then powered a volley just wide from 30 yards which Friedel scrambled but wouldn’t have covered.

THAT clearance

Finally it was Tottenham’s chance to steal the match, and for John Terry to show his True Grit. Bale twisted and turned and conned the Chelsea defender’s from a counter attack and slid a through ball to Adebayor. With Cech to beat, Terry decided to play the Togolese striker onside, all the while sprinting to cover his keeper and the Chelsea goal. As he predicted, Adebayor shot past Cech with the ball heading for the back of the net. Then, with a desperate lunging dive, Terry kept the ball out with one of the best goal line clearances you are likely to see. For all the boo’s every time JT touched the ball, and for the chav, low life songs sung by the uneducated north London crowd, Terry left the pitch with his head held high. Even the home supporters would have admired this one.

Cometh the man, JT plays out of his shirt for Chelsea to silence the boo boys

Al