Tottenham 2 Chelsea 4: Mata Makes Merry: Jonathan Northcroft

Tottenham 2 Chelsea 4: Mata makes merry
Jonathan Northcroft Published: 21 October 2012
SO THATS all you need: 130.5m. The problem of how to reinvent a football team whose great stars have faded or gone has tested owners and managers since the game became professional. The men who have proved best at it Herbert Chapman, Sir Matt Busby, Sir Alex Ferguson, Bob Paisley are considered visionaries. Chelsea have come up with a less romantic way. But that doesnt mean no credit is due for the kaleidoscopic and coruscating ensemble at the top of the Premier League. You can dip into your bottomless pit of pounds and roubles but you still have to ensure your executives spend wisely, so credit to Roman Abramovich whatever soap operas and absurdities have gone on with Chelsea recruitment in the past for bringing together Oscar (25m), Eden Hazard (32m) and the part-artist, partworkaholic that is Juan Mata (23.5m). Even Fernando Torres, the owners 50m indulgence, is doing his bit with this electric trio behind him. In a tremendous match Tottenham were good but Chelsea were better and forward lines made the difference. Spurs surged from 1-0 down to 2-1 ahead after upping their intensity at the start of the second half but then Chelsea upped the genius levels.
With Oscar and Hazard creating, Mata scored two goals then fashioned one himself out of nothing for Daniel Sturridge to finish. 4-2. Credit to Roberto di Matteo also. Many coaches are given lavish or expensive player options but dont know how to combine them. In 2012-13, Di Matteo has applied to Chelseas Premier League football a different style but the same principles clear decision-making, man management, tactical fearlessness that he used, victoriously, in the Champions League in 2011-12. Perhaps nobody since Jose Mourinho has kept the big personalities and the mega-paid in Chelseas dressing room so unified. The clubs first league win at White Hart Lane since Mourinho triumphed here in 2005 was achieved with Frank Lampard on the bench and John Terry banned. The Terry racism saga kept throwing up stories but Di Matteo focused his players and achieved a result. If the saga reflects badly on Chelsea off the pitch, on it nothing can deflect from the magic of Mata and Co. The tap-in for Sturridge that settled the result a few seconds into stoppage time was teed up by the Iberian, who pressed Kyle Walker out on the touchline, stole possession, advanced and rolled a pass across the goalmouth. It demonstrated Matas extraordinary levels of effort still sharp, still chasing after 90 minutes of a super-intense derby. His two goals showed more cerebral and technical qualities. Strikes in the first nine minutes of the second period, from William Gallas and Jermain Defoe, put Spurs 2-1 up and an increase in the speed of their pressing, passing
and counterattacking was behind their revival but, as Andre Villas-Boas noted, his players needed to consolidate when ahead. We were too frenetic, he said. When Jan Vertonghen lost possession when trying to go on another run down the left, Chelsea grabbed the initiative. Oscar crossed, Gallas clearing header was poor and Mata placed a shot inside Brad Friedels far post. Soon 2-2 became 3-2, when Mata went one on one with Friedel and finished confidently. He had executed his run with exquisite timing to stay onside and reach Hazards gorgeously weighted through ball after an ingenious passing exchange involving Oscar and John Obi Mikel. It was exactly the football that Andre Villas Boas, who signed Mata, wanted to impose on Chelsea and the beaten manager was generous. Their players are on a level of form, so connected with each other, you can only compliment teams like this. Tottenham played well but we have to accept the trio behind the striker was amazing, Villas-Boas said. His formation was the same as Di Matteos, though his principles were a little different. There is an impressive mix in Chelseas football under Di Matteo: they have spells of possession, spells of playing a blistering counterattacking game. Ramires readiness to join his forwards increases their dimensions and the swapping of passes and positions by Mata, Oscar and Hazard offers fluidity. Torres finishing is still reduced but his running does stretch opposing defences. Tottenhams game is more focused on ball retention and Villas-Boas was compromised by the loss of his
playmaker, Moussa Dembele, with a hip injury. Spurs were just as affected by the absence of Gareth Bale, whose girlfriend went into labour a few hours before kick-off. The three players they had behind their striker, Gylfi Sigurdsson, Clint Dempsey and Aaron Lennon, did not carry the danger of Chelseas, even if Lennon sparkled intermittently. Chelsea led after 17 minutes when one of their centrebacks came over all Brazilian, but it wasnt David Luiz. At a corner, another poor clearing header by Gallas dropped near the penalty spot and Cahill lost Steven Caulker and got ahead of Walker to strike a volley beyond Friedel. Cahills defending wasnt as good as his attacking, though, and his weak header fell to Lennon. He set up Sigurdsson, who shot wide. Mata, in his only bad moment, skied a rebound from Friedels parry, with the goal open, after Ramires led a break. Spurs finished the first half strongly, with Cahill and Mikel making blocks from Demspey and Ashley Cole clearing a Defoe cross-shot off the line. Summoning similar verve at the start of the second period, they scored twice. Vertonghen hooked Huddlestones free kick back across goal and Gallas glanced home. Then Lennon, not for the first time, unbalanced Cole with his dribbling skills and used a gap this created to cross. Defoe got between Cahill and Luiz to score. There will be few better games this season. We play good football but ultimately we want to win games, said Di Matteo. Players such as Mata look
capable of being not just bill-toppers but topping tables too. Friedel 6, Walker 6, Gallas 5, Caulker 5, Vertonghen 7, Huddlestone 5 (Livermore 67min), Sandro 6, Lennon 7, Sigurdsson 5, Dempsey 6 (Adebayor 74min), Defoe 8 Chelsea: Cech 5, Ivanovic 6, Luiz 6, Cahill 7, Cole 6, Ramires 7, Mikel 6, Oscar 7 (Sturridge 83min), Hazard 8 (Lampard 90min), Mata 9, Torres 6
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Tottenham 2 Chelsea 4: Mata makes merry

Jonathan Northcroft Published: 21 October 2012

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