Chelsea 3 Spurs 0Eden Hazard 19, Didier Drogba 22, Loic Remy 73
Chelsea's veteran striker Didier Drogba celebrates after scoring the second goal against London rivals Tottenham. The best way, perhaps, to put Tottenham Hotspur’s record at Chelsea into context is that the last time they actually won at Stamford Bridge was the same day that President FW de Klerk announced Nelson Mandela was to be released from prison.
It is 24 years and 10 months since a side managed by Terry Venables came away with a 2-1 victory here and their latest defeat was their 28th attempt to break that wretched sequence.
Mauricio Pochettino is the 15th manager to give it a go and, once again, all Spurs were left with was the now-familiar sense of deja vu that engulfs this rivalry.
This one was classic Tottenham in many ways: starting encouragingly, threatening in pockets of the match to create a story, but then playing a considerable part in their own downfall and reminding us of the gulf that exists between a side with authentic title aspirations and one in a prolonged game of catch-up.
Chelsea did not play as exhilaratingly as the scoreline suggests but they were the more ruthless, efficient team by some considerable distance and there was an air of inevitability about this game as soon as Eden Hazard and Didier Drogba had scored within three minutes of one another midway through the first half.
Loïc Rémy added a stylish third shortly after replacing Drogba in the second half and, home and away, Chelsea have now lost only five out of their last 58 meetings with the team from White Hart Lane.
Tottenham had actually begun the game as though affronted by the weight of statistics. The team passed the ball crisply and had a striker, in Harry Kane, who looked capable of troubling John Terry and Gary Cahill in the heart of Chelsea’s back four.
Yet a team cannot expect to defend this generously and get away with it against the side at the top of the Premier League. Kane could not convert either of the two chances that fell for him inside the opening quarter of an hour and it was startling to see the way Spurs subsided during that period when the game suddenly lurched away from them.
Drogba’s goal was a particularly traumatic one for Spurs to concede given that it came from nothing more elaborate than Hugo Lloris miscuing a routine kick and not even getting the ball to the midway point of his own half, leaving him hopelessly exposed as Oscar and Hazard moved the ball to the man filling in for the suspended Diego Costa.
Drogba might not be the player he once was but this was a gift and Lloris seemed to take an age to shake his head clear. There were three other occasions in the first half when he shanked or misplaced clearances from his own penalty area.
Pochettino will reflect on that moment early on when Kane sent a twisting header against the crossbar and, shortly afterwards, when the same player seized on a mistake by Cahill, drove into the penalty area and flashed a diagonal shot across the goalmouth.
Érik Lamela showed some nice touches and Nabil Bentaleb looked confident on the ball.
Chelsea, however, were clinical. After 19 minutes, Branislav Ivanovic’s cross-field pass picked out Hazard on the left. His speed and movement makes him a dangerously elusive player but there was nothing particularly original about the one-two with Drogba that created the chance.
The problem for Spurs was that Aaron Lennon had simply let his man run off him. Vlad Chiriches was out of position and Hazard picked his spot to change the entire complexion of the evening.
Cahill’s error might have had something to do with a clash of heads with Jan Vertonghen in the opening five minutes, leading to the Chelsea centre-half being replaced by Kurt Zouma at half-time.
Kane continued to toil manfully but there was also the clear sense that the home side were playing within themselves, content to protect their lead and operate from a position of strength.
Hazard was a wonderful outlet on the left side of their attack, always willing to take the ball in tight positions and a tiring Drogba might have made it 3-0 just before the hour when one of the Belgian’s shots was sliced into his path.
At the other end, Spurs needed more ingenuity. They played with an urgency that made it feel as though they still believed the damage could be repaired but Chelsea are a formidable team to crack once they have manouevred themselves into a winning position.
It was risk-free football from the league leaders in the second half, with Nemanja Matic and Cesc Fàbregas rarely straying too far forwards, and for the most part Terry and his defensive colleagues stubbornly made sure Belgium’s No1, Thibaut Courtois, did not have a more challenging night.
Rémy’s goal settled any lingering nerves, running on to César Azpilicueta’s clever pass and getting the better of Vertonghen inside the penalty area.
Willian was available to his right but Rémy expertly rolled the ball past Lloris and the Chelsea machine rolled on.
