Tottenham and Chelsea share the spoils as Torres sees red

Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea played out an entertaining 1-1 draw at White Hart Lane in today’s early kick off. Both the team came into the match buoyed by good results in the mid-week’s Capital One Cup and should be satisfied to share the points. This London derby hogged the limelight as it was Jose Mourinho’s former protege Andre Villas-Boas’ first match against the Special One’s team. It was the 140th meeting between the two teams with Chelsea having a win-loss-draw record of 59-45-36 against Tottenham. It was a fiercely contested London derby as there were as many as 7 yellow cards and Fernando Torres was sent off.

The match started at a frenetic pace and it was Tottenham who broke the deadlock in the 19th minute. Roberto Soldado and Christian Eriksen combined well before Soldado played in Gylfi Sigurdsson to score his third goal of this season. In the 23rd minute it was nearly 2-0 to the home team but for the intervention of Branislav Ivanovic who hacked the ball away with Sigurdsson sliding in for a tap-in. However Chelsea gained foothold as the game progressed and ended the first half as the stronger team.

The second half started in the same way as the first half and Chelsea seemed to have been rejuvenated by the second half introduction of Juan Mata as they searched for the equalizing goal. They did not have to wait long enough though as Terry flicked a superb header into the net after an excellent free-kick by Mata. This was Mata’s first assist this season after ending the last season with 25 assists. Chelsea tried hard to get a second goal but Hugo Lloris was in imperious form in the Spurs goal to prevent any damage. Then in the 81st minute, Fernando Torres was shown a second yellow card and got his marching orders after fouling Jan Vertonghen.

With this draw, Tottenham has provisionally moved to the top spot after accumulating 13 points from six games whereas Chelsea occupy third position with 11 points from the same number of matches.