Both teams had something to play for, but only Chelsea seemed to want to do something about it at first, with the visitors offering very little, outside of a few enterprising runs from Mathys Tel, who seemed to be under the impression that it was 30°C outside and really needed to tuck up one leg of his shorts. Didn’t help his finishing, that’s for sure.
Chelsea weren’t particularly dangerous either, and the game featured zero shots on target from either side through the first quarter hour. But Chelsea were the better side, and we got our reward through Enzo Fernández, who showed off some rarely seen shooting skill from range to give us the 1-0 lead on 18 minutes.
That would be all for the first half, with the second half then continuing on in similar vein. Spurs did start coming forward a bit more to look for that point to save themselves from relegation, but that left a bit more space for Chelsea as well. And we would take advantage of that as Enzo turned provided to set up Andrey Santos and give us the 2-0 lead halfway through the period.
Alas, Spurs would quickly get one back through a scuffed backheel attempt finding its way to a wide open Richarlison, setting up a slightly nervy final 15 minutes. Jorrel Hato made one tremendous last ditch tackle on Spurs’ best chance, and that Maddison chance was thankfully the closest Spurs would get to an equalizer.
Things got a bit heated in the final minutes, not unsurprisingly, and at one point we spent a solid two minutes just wrestling in the penalty area on a defensive corner,
- Back to a back-four with Fofana and Hato in the center and Colwill rested for workload concerns
- Acheampong’s first start in 13 games
- Our first Premier League win in two and a half months
- Alas, Man City failed to beat Bournemouth in the other game today, which means that Champions League is now officially out of our reach (and it also means Arsenal are champions)
- Europa League or Conference League assured with a win on the final day however
- Spurs still not quite safe from relegation
- Next up: Sunderland away on the final day of the season
- KTBFFH