Tottenham hold out to secure first leg advantage over Chelsea

 

There’s a capacity cap at Wembley in place now, limiting the national stadium to 51,000 fans, but on this cold January night, it was a cauldron of fire. Tottenham hosted fierce rivals Chelsea in the first leg of this Carabao Cup semi-final tie in their first game at Wembley since their disappointing 3-1 home defeat at the hands of Wolves as the sought a repeat of the 3-1 win over the Blues back in November. 

 

A similarly bright start almost came to fruition as Son Heung-Min, looking to continue his fine form, raced onto a long Dele Alli ball over the top of the Chelsea defence. The South Korean thought he’d won the foot race with Andreas Christensen, the young Dane deputising for David Luiz, but after a coming together, and the home side’s appeals for a foul, Micheal Oliver elected to play the advantage. 

 

Ross Barkley forged the first chance of the game as he dragged an effort wide, while at the other end, Harry Kane mustered the opening shot on target as his acrobatic chance was dealt with easily enough by Kepa Arizzabalaga in a frantic opening five minutes. However, the game began to settle into a cagey affair and it wasn’t until Eden Hazard worked some space 20 yards from goal on the 20-minute mark that the Blues were able to test Paulo Gazzaniga, though the Belgian’s effort was comfortably stopped by his Argentine counterpart. 

 

It was Tottenham who drew first blood in this Carabao Cup semi-final clash, however. Harry Kane was played through and fouled by Kepa and while it looked as though the Spurs captain was offside, a lengthy VAR check by Michael Oliver resulted in a penalty, which Kane dispatched with aplomb. In the final five minutes of the half, N’Golo Kane came agonisingly close to drawing Chelsea level, only to turn Marcos Alonso low cross onto the post out and for a goal kick. 

 

There was a heart in mouth moment for the hosts on the stroke of half time as Callum Hudson-Odoi’s cross caught Gazzaniga off guard. The Spurs shotstopper did well to tip the cross onto the post before Toby Alderweireld could hack clear to ensure the home side went in at the break with a one-goal advantage. 

 

Kane chanced his luck from distance shortly after the restart, but Kepa was equal to his 25-yard drive as Spurs aimed to quickly double their advantage in the second half to gain a real stranglehold on the semi-final clash. For Chelsea, Hazard was beginning to find his rhythm as he too let fly from outside of the box. His shot curled safely into the hands of Gazzaniga as the game began to open up. Kante then found space to go for goal, only for Gazzaniga to deny the Frenchman. 

 

Chelsea were beginning to grow into the game and should have been level on the hour mark. A Blues corner was worked to the back post and an unmarked Christensen by Barkley, who could only prod wide from close range. A couple of half-hearted efforts aside, Chelsea were unable to make their dominance count. They had 17 shots to Spurs’ six, yet with only five of those on target, an inability to really test Gazzaniga, save for a few pot shots from distance, meant they were left to rue their profligacy. 

 

 

It was another clear indication, too, that a new striker is needed for the Blues. With Olivier Giroud only recently recovering from injury in time for tonight’s clash, and Alvaro Morata ruled out with a hamstring complaint, Eden Hazard led the line, yet the lack of runners beyond him when he was in possession showed. The Belgian was the WhoScored man of the match with an 8.28 as he completed the most dribbles (8) and made the joint-most key passes (5), yet the lack of outlet in the final third impacted his influence in attack. 

 

It wasn’t until Pedro came on for Willian, with the Spaniard a far more direct player than his Brazilian teammate, that Hazard began to really shine in attack. While it wasn’t to be for Hazard and Chelsea at Wembley, as the Blues fell to a third successive defeat to Spurs for the first time since 1963, the Carabao Cup loss merely highlighted Chelsea’s desire to sign a new forward. Hazard when he operates as the false nine is far less effective than when he comes in off the left as space is at a premium and he’s a player who prefers to be in possession rather than make runs off the last defender. 

 

Spurs may have counted their blessings at Wembley on Tuesday night, but a similar showing in two weeks’ time at Stamford Bridge, particularly if Hazard churns out another fine 90 minutes, could come back to haunt Mauricio Pochettino’s side. Until then, though, Spurs held firm and take a first leg advantage across to west London later this month as a result

Tottenham hold out to secure first leg advantage over Chelsea