Dele Alli scored twice
to deny Chelsea an historic win
record and send Tottenham back into
the top four with a 2-0 victory over their fierce London rivals. The
midfielder nodded home two crosses from Christian
Eriksen to stop the Blues winning for a top-flight record 14th consecutive
game.
The league
leaders went close through Eden Hazard
in the first half and Diego Costa in
the second, but Spurs have cut Chelsea's lead at the top to five points
and opened up the title race. Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino decided to match Chelsea like-for-like with
wing-backs, and Kyle Walker and Danny Rose won the battle against Victor Moses and Marcos Alonso, who have been so instrumental to Antonio Conte's successful system.
Hazard should have fired the Blues in front after just five minutes when
he beat the offside trap and was played through one-on-one with Hugo Lloris, but he shot wide of the
far post. Walker and Rose were menacing on either flank and Pedro was
lucky to escape with just a yellow card when he came in late on the Spurs
left-back, stirring back up some resentment from the 'Battle of the Bridge'
last season.
Pedro and Costa then exchanged heated words
after Costa failed to play the forward into a shooting position, as Chelsea
grew frustrated at being unable to threaten the Tottenham's goal and Spurs
had a deserved breakthrough on the stroke of the interval when Walker
played in Eriksen to cross for Alli to nod home for the fourth consecutive
game.
Chelsea came firing out of the traps in the second half and could have
equalised through either Costa, who forced Lloris to tip wide from long range,
or Hazard, who missed a close-range header at the far post.
Alli made no mistake and doubled Spurs' lead on 54 minutes
when Eriksen picked out another well-timee run into the box, and he headed
beyond Thibaut Courtois into the far
corner his third brace in as many matches. Chelsea looked forlorn and
bewildered, as Pedro found space but headed an Alonso cross feebly at
Lloris, and Conte threw on Willian, Cesc
Fabregas and Michy Batshuayi but
Tottenham held on for a memorable, fifth straight win to move third
in the Premier League and just two points behind second-place Liverpool.
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