In a game where chances were few, all it took to separate the two sides was a defensive error or a stroke of genius, and luckily for the Blues, a Jan Vertonghen slip allowed Samuel Eto’o a chance to open the scoring, which he did in the 56th minute.
Eto’o was involved in a contentious penalty decision which led to the sending off of Younes Kaboul and a chance for Eden Hazard to give Chelsea breathing space, which he took. In the 88th minute a slip by Sandro allowed Ba the chance to seal the win which he did emphatically. And just a minute later a mix-up in defense between Kyle Walker and Hugo Lloris gifted Ba an open goal and the Senegalese took the chance to kill Spurs off.
The win takes Chelsea 7 points clear at the top of the table, with teams below them having games in hand and for Tottenham the opportunity to snatch 4th place is slowly disappearing.
Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho’s reaction: “We were prepared for a difficult opponent, so in the first half we were calm – no panic, no pressure, not surprised by the fact the opponent can come here and play the way they play,” he told reporters.
“But the reality was that in the first half they had control but they didn’t scare us.
“In the second half we changed our structure a little bit. The game was much more connected, the distance between the midfield and the attacking players was smaller because [half-time substitute] Oscar was filling that space.
“You can say the first goal is a mistake but the way Eto’o read the mistake was fantastic.
“After that, no story. Complete control – easy to pass, easy to control, easy for our supporters to enjoy and easy for me to be calm.”
Spurs boss Tim Sherwood’s reaction: “You can’t legislate for the capitulation – you can’t have that,
There’s a lack of characters, too many of them are too nice to each other and you need to show a bit more guts and not want to be someone’s mate all the time. They need to drag it out of each other.
“It hurts me and I won’t forget about this when we hit the motorway, but some might.
“It’s not a penalty and not a sending off but the game was finished after that. We’ve got the Europa League on Thursday and we owe the fans a performance. We let them down again on the big occasion. You won’t finish in the top four if you don’t beat top teams. You’re miles away unless you beat the top teams.
“There have been too many blips. The club talks about fourth, wake up.”
By Phil Wellbrook
