Chelsea proved their mettle by handing a 3-0 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur in their English Premier League matchday five encounter at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium thanks to a second half performance that blew the home side away.
Coming on the back of a hard-earned 1-0 victory in the Champions League in midweek, Chelsea hoped to keep up with Liverpool, who had claimed a 3-0 win at home to Crystal Palace twenty-four hours earlier to go top of the league. Their opponents, Tottenham, scraped a 2-2 draw against French outfit Rennes in their UEFA Europa Conference League match.
Both sides were missing key players coming into the fixture, with Chelsea’s first-choice goalkeeper Edouard Mendy missing out due to an injury suffered on Tuesday and Tottenham wingers Lucas Moura and Steven Bergwijn also unavailable due to injury.
The home side set the tone in the first half as they dominated proceedings with their energy and impressive counter-pressing all over the pitch. Chelsea struggled to create chances of note, with Kai Havertz and Mason Mount failing to test Hugo Lloris in the Tottenham goal on rare occasions that Chelsea could break into the Spurs box. They were fortunate not to be behind at the break as stand-in keeper Kepa Arrizabalaga thwarted Heung-Min Son when the Korean was through on goal.
After a drab first half in which his side was dominated and failed to register a single shot on target, Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel switched his system by introducing award-winning French midfielder N’Golo Kante in place of the largely ineffective Mount at halftime, and the change bore fruit within four minutes of the restart.
Marcos Alonso’s out-swinging corner was met firmly by the experienced head of 36-year-old Brazilian defender Thiago Silva to give Chelsea a 49th minute lead against Tottenham after a brief period of dominance, making the veteran the oldest player to score in the league this season.
Chelsea continued to pile the pressure as they dominated possession and were rewarded only nine minutes later through Kante. The Frenchman’s shot from outside the box took a wicked deflection off Eric Dier, wrong-footing Lloris before going in off the inside of the left upright.
The Blues should have added to their two goals as both substitute Timo Werner and the excellent Mateo Kovacic were guilty of missing when it was arguably easier to score. The final nail in the Spurs coffin came in the 91st minute from the boot of German defender Antonio Rudiger. The centre back fired a low cross from Werner into the bottom corner to round off the scoring and give Chelsea an emphatic win.
Chelsea have now picked up 13 points from their opening five games after their win over Tottenham. The Blues have now won consecutive matches 3-0, while Spurs have lost consecutive matches 3-0 after winning their first two matches of the season. The Blues have moved to the top of the log with the exact same record as Liverpool so far.
Chelsea have now won six successive away London derbies for the first time in the club’s history. They will do battle with champions Manchester City in their next match as they would take a true test of their title credentials.
