Chelsea kill off crisis talk with stirring victory over Tottenham at Wembley

THE OPENER defied mathematics. The manner of the victory was coolly calculated. A mixture of inspiration and perspiration has swiftly nipped talk of a crisis at Chelsea in the bud.
Tottenham defender Toby Alderweireld is 6ft 2in tall. He jumped a good two feet in the air and strained every sinew of his neck to stretch a further couple of eighths.

But Marcos Alonso’s superbly struck free-kick floated tantalisingly above him, swerving in a perfect arc towards the top corner of the Tottenham net. Hugo Lloris’s glove clutched at air.

Leave the boffins to calculate how he did it, football fans could just appreciate the Spaniard’s instinctive ability to produce such a gem. It was the perfect goal to kick-start Premier League football at the national stadium – just a shame for a club which had invested so much energy into trying to make it a home that it had gone in at the wrong end.

Spurs fans took advantage of the free flags on every seat to whip up an atmosphere just before kick-off. No question, the intensity of a London derby was magnified by the giant concave bowl.

As when these two met under the giant arch for last season’s FA Cup semi-final, Tottenham were the better side. They dominated the midfield battle, found space more easily on Wembley’s wide flanks and had an energy and spirit that was missing from their Champions League encounters here last season.
But football is about working out how to win, whether that is done on the back of the proverbial fag packet or using a calculator. And since he arrived in the Premier League, Conte has shown he can certainly do the sums.

With Gary Cahill missing, he risked Andreas Christensen in the heart of defence after five unconvincing years at the club. Tiemoue Bakayoko was brought back into action just weeks after minor knee surgery. It was a ploy to keep David Luiz exactly where he was.

That proved the key. For all of Alonso’s unexpected goalscoring exploits, the much-maligned Brazilian gave one of his more mature performances for Chelsea and – although it will not show up on any assist charts – he proved key to a victory Tottenham looked to have avoided.

All that would come much, much later. Chelsea, though, should have been in front after five minutes, of course. Alvaro Morata completely fluffed a six-yard header when completely unmarked.
The bigger worry though is how little physical impact he made on the Tottenham defence. Certainly, he is no Diego Costa and, as a result, the Spurs back three were able to surge forward into attack untroubled.

Having fallen behind to that glorious free-kick, Tottenham’s sharp interplay suggested that it was a matter of when rather than if they scored. Unfortunately for Harry Kane, that is looking increasingly like being September again.

The England star has never scored in August – but it certainly was not for want of trying today.

Kane’s sharp shooting hit Thibaut Courtois’ knee, his shins, the inside of his post. In the second half, an uncharacteristically weak header spurned another chance from a Tottenham set-piece.
In the end, Chelsea substitute Michy Batshuayi had to show him how it was done, meeting Christian Eriksen’s 82nd-minute free-kick with a firm header into his own net.




Pochettino tried to whip up the Wembley crowd but Conte, though, was keeping a level head. Willian had been dangerous on the counter-attack already. The Chelsea manager knows that if his defence can hold firm long enough, he can punish teams on the counter.

With Luiz popping up as a fourth centre-back whenever the dam looked like bursting, it was Kante who was finally engineered the freedom to do the damage.

Kane tried to wrestle him to the floor in the centre-circle without joy and it took Mousa Dembele’s desperate tackle to rescue Spurs.
With the ball safely in Lloris’s hand, they looked to give Chelsea a taste of their own medicine with a breakaway of their own.

Moussa Sissoko, so frustrating in Tottenham colours since he signed, clearly did not reckon on Luiz being on him. But it was that vital intervention which decided the game. It was Pedro who fed the ball on to Alonso to steer a famous winner under Lloris and he technically will be credited with the assist.

The contribution from Luiz, though, had been classic Chelsea. Pochettino will wonder how his side failed to bury their Wembley hoodoo – that is just one win in the last 10 competitive games there now.

He will just have to accept that, after that disappointing opening to the season, Conte had all the answers.

Source:www.express.co.uk