Ange Postecoglou and Dominic Solanke after Tottenham vs Chelsea
Tottenham threw away a 2-0 lead to lose to Chelsea
Last year Tottenham’s fans were prepared to forget Chelsea putting four past them in one of the season’s craziest games.
This time, even in the spirit of goodwill to all men, Spurs supporters will be less forgiving after another classic served up by two bitter rivals heading in opposite directions.
Chelsea are now deservedly the closest title challengers to leaders Liverpool after coming from two goals down to humiliate Tottenham after another Cole Palmer masterclass. Tottenham, meanwhile, were booed off by sections of the fans who had stayed long enough to see Son Heung-min’s 97th minute goal give the scoreline some respectability.
At the final whistle, Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca celebrated wildly on the touchline while the TV cameras inevitably panned to Spurs chairman Daniel Levy and then Ange Postecoglou. The pressure is growing on the Tottenham manager who gambled everything on throwing in Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven and neither centre half lasted the 90 minutes to stop the goal rush.
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It ended up as humiliation for Tottenham and glory for Chelsea who must now be seen as genuine title contenders as they are four points behind Liverpool, albeit having played a game more. Chelsea are growing in belief and confidence and Maresca is doing an incredible job at Stamford Bridge to turn what was a bloated, ramshackle squad into a unified winning machine.
And in Palmer they have the master of entertainment. Honestly, if Palmer does not win the Ballon d’Or at some point in his career then there must be something seriously wrong.
Palmer is just brilliant. The confidence he showed to score his second penalty - and Chelsea’s fourth goal - with a cheeky Panenka just defied belief. And that completed Tottenham’s humiliation.
The guy is just glorious to watch. On current form, Palmer is unquestionably the best player in the Premier League and broke a record with 12 out of 12 penalties in the top flight.
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Cole Palmer scored two penalties for Chelsea ( Image: CameraSport via Getty Images)
Chelsea look the real deal and, after a weekend when Liverpool put their feet up after the Merseyside derby was postponed, Arne Slot will be more worried about the challenge from Maresca’s men than from Arsenal. This game was fabulous last year when Postecoglou’s football was still new, fresh and fun when Spurs also had two men sent off that night and had made a brilliant start to the campaign.
Fast forward 13 months and Postecoglou is under the cosh. The fans are turning but you thought he might catch a break when Chelsea defender Marc Cucurella slipped, Brennan Johnson darted forward and his cross was fired in by Dominic Solanke.
Soon after, it happened again. Cucurella slipped, Pedro Porro set up Dejan Kulusevski who dribbled along the edge of the box before firing a low shot into the bottom corner. No wonder Cucurella changed boots after that.
There was no let-up. Romero went off injured as the gamble on his fitness backfired. Jadon Sancho’s superb cross shot in off the post got Chelsea back in the game and it was only 18 minutes gone.
Chelsea were in charge now. They were level after 61 minutes when Palmer fired home his first penalty after Yves Bissouma had tripped Moises Caicedo. Caicedo was lucky in the first half when an X-rated lunge on Pape Sarr was checked by VAR and somehow cleared.
Palmer then tricked and teased three defenders before his cross was deflected to Enzo Fernandez who scored on the half volley as Chelsea completed a turnaround from 2-0 down to 3-2 up. It was Palmer’s trickery and feet which won another penalty as he was running away from goal but Sarr lunged in. Palmer then put in the penalty with a cheeky chipped Panenka. Incredible.
Deep in injury time, Tottenham got one back as James Maddison set up Son to score but it was too little too late. And time may be running out for Postecoglou.
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