The Man in The Shed

22nd  December – No way Jose

Whilst you can never say never in football I had to admit that I was surprised that Jose had taken the Tottenham job. Almost as surprising as Spurs sacking their previous manager; they were hardly staring at relegation following an appearance in the Champions League final.

Credit Jose with lifting the North Londoners, with 4 wins in 5 games compared to our 4 defeats in the last 5. I wasn’t feeling optimistic watching the build-up on SKY.

The biggest surprise on the teamsheet was the return of Alonso and the 3-4-3 formation. With a week of preparation Lampard clearly thought this was a way to outthink Mourinho.

Alonso was clearly the pantomime villain for the Spurs fans who booed his every touch (he hasn’t been that popular with the Chelsea fans of late either).

Well the first ten minutes were a revelation. Chelsea were in complete control.

A corner from Willian to Kovacic and back to Willian left the Brazilian with enough space to accelerate and smash a shot into the corner for a great goal. Even more enjoyable was the sight on the slow motion replay of Alli ducking out of the way of the shot.

The Chelsea domination continued. I loved two match-ups between Dier and Mount with the Chelsea youngster proving that he could hold his own in a tackle.

It took Spurs almost half an hour to create a decent chance. Whilst Kane was captain of my Fantasy team there was no way I wanted him to score today !

My fingers were crossed as we approached half time. If we could complete the half with our lead intact I believed we could get something from the game. Then out of nowhere Willian chips the ball forward for Alonso who is attacked with a kung foo kick from the Spurs keeper. What was he thinking ? The referee then says it is a Spurs free kick as Gary Neville on TV is trying to rationalise a moment of madness from the goalkeeper. After another long VAR wait the decision is overturned for a Chelsea penalty ! Willian steps up and scores again. Wow !

I couldn’t really believe what I had just seen over the previous 45 minutes. A week of rest had clearly had a big impact along with an unexpected formation. Spurs had not got going and a mad moment from their keeper had gifted us a second goal.

Chelsea managed to maintain the positive momentum as the second half began. Then Rüdiger and Son clashed on the hour. A strong challenge from Rüdiger but Son somehow managed to kick out and into Rüdiger’s chest. Rüdiger collapsed like a bag of spuds and the VAR check said violent conduct so Son is off.

Every decision against Spurs now is angering their players even more.

Mount had been great today – perhaps the first time for a while.

Clearly the home crowd were angry with Rüdiger; then the game was stopped and it became clear that Chelsea players had reported racial chanting. All of a sudden it wasn’t about the performance any longer.

The game’s intensity dropped. Whether this was as a result of the alleged chanting or Spurs accepting that the game was lost was unclear. Eight minutes of extra time (mainly for all of the VAR) made no difference to the result.

A great performance now overshadowed by racism.

Chelsea had played an outstanding game today – even Gary Neville had said so. All of the TV pundits agreed. Willian was amazing. Lampard had beaten Jose again.

But now it was all about alleged racial chanting.