Relief For Mourinho As Chelsea Draw Spurs 1-1

Chelsea and Spurs played a one all draw in a tension soaked London derby at White Hart Lane, Spurs home ground, early Saturday afternoon.

The real rivalry before the match was not even between the two London teams per se but a more personal one between the two Portuguese managers. Andre

Villa Boas the Spurs manager and Jose Mourinho of Chelsea used to work together when the Chelsea manager was in charge at Porto but have reportedly fallen out with each other since over undisclosed reasons.

Besides, Andre Villa Boas, aka, AVB, would always want to prove a point anytime his team played against Chelsea – that he is a good coach and Roman Abramovich, Chelsea’s owner, should not have sacked him from the job in 2012.

Chelsea launched the first attack in the 2nd minute of the match with a lofted pass from Frank Lampard to Ramires but the Brazilian was too eager and strayed off-side.

It was Spurs, however, that drew first blood. Gylfi Sigurdsson’s goal came in the 19th minute of the match after collecting a fine pass from Soldado. The job began with Eriksen beating a couple of Chelsea players in the box before giving it to Soldado.

The goal was a wake-up call for the Blues as they pressed for an equaliser, which unfortunately eluded them until the half time whistle was blown after 45 minutes.

The second half started with Juan Mata replacing Mikel.

To say Juan Mata’s inclusion changed the tempo of the game in favour of Chelsea would be stating the obvious. His 57th minute goal was ruled offside and disallowed.

Chelsea’s equaliser came in the 65th minute of the match when John Terry’s head connected a Juan Mata free kick and placed the ball into the bottom corner of the Spurs’ goal post.

With 25 minutes, at least, left to play and a new found resurgence the Chelsea boys pressed harder attacking Spurs relentlessly until Fernando Torres got a second yellow card and an automatic sending off.

Torres’ expulsion changed the tempo of the game and the Chelsea boys found themselves defending hard with ten men against Spurs’ eleven.
With Spurs’ mounting pressure on the Chelsea goal area and all Chelsea outfield players coming back to defend the extra four minutes added to regulation time must have felt like an eternity to Chelsea fans.

Luckily for Chelsea there was no last minute upset and the game ended 1-1 much to the relief of Jose Mourinho. The 65th minute John Terry goal might have just saved his job.