Sunday evening, the sky over the vicinity of the White Hart Lane in northwest London was bursting with hundreds of flashes of fireworks. That evening, Tottenham won their first victory over Chelsea in the championship matches in England for over 16 years. The last Spurs victory over Chelsea was dated February 10, 1990, when Gary Lineker and Paul Gascoigne played for Tottenham Hotspur.
The ringleader of the Sunday match at White Hart Lane again hinted at the historical implication of the results. The Blues piled on Robinson's gate with all the weight of their eminent attack. They created a series of scoring chances, scored two goals and, confident in their advantage, almost indifferently decided to cancel Graham Poll's second (this was the next goal of Didier Drogba, who spent the best season in his career).
But the first goal of Chelsea was a completely unique event. The ball lay on Claude Makelele's foot in a way that he probably never laid down in his life, and, fired from 22 meters, he entered the very corner of Robinson's goal. Hard worker and neat, Makelele is arguably the most unstoppable player in leading European leagues. Having endowed France’s defensive midfielder with a mass of different talents, nature completely deprived him of the ability to hit the ball properly, and the phrase “Makelele kicks” in England is considered an oxymoron funnier and poorer than our “Stranzl’s reliability” or “Gazzaev’s self-criticism”. Makelele scored his only goal in the last seven seasons in the spring of 2005, when Chelsea had already secured the championship. To the joys of success, the Chelsea players pushed Makelele to the 11-meter mark to break the meaningless penalty in the 90th minute of the meaningless match against Charlton. But even a distance of 11 meters for Makelele then turned out to be too big: the awkward blow of the most supportive midfielder defended the goalkeeper, and Makelele zealously pushed the ball into the goal on finishing. “Training, training, training at White Hart Lane,” recalling the balance of matches with Tottenham, the fans sang after the goal.
The Chelsea launch assault, however, ran out quickly. By the middle of the first half, Tottenham had restored the defense’s harmony, imposed an absolutely equal fight in the center of the field, and even began to gradually put pressure on the opponent’s pain points. One of the most painful in recent times is the right flank of defense, where Paulo Ferreira is mistaken with unenviable regularity. It was his foul that led to the penalty, whose simple rally (Jenas shed - Downing's header) turned out to be effective nonetheless. 1: 1. Bularuz, who replaced Ferreira during the break, looked on the right and even worse. Already in the 52nd minute he was beaten by Robbie Keane. Lennon, who responded to the cross of Kina, set Ashley Cole on the grass in the first movement, removed John Terry, who had advanced to the safety net, and hit Ilariu again with the third - 2: 1. Tired of shuffling right-backs, Mourinho soon realized that it would be better to do without them - instead of Bularuz, Kalu entered the field, and Chelsea switched to 3-4-3.
At the 72nd minute, Chelsea had even fewer defenders. Graham Poll fantasized a couple of yellow cards to John Terry, and, carefully counting to two, showed the captain of Chelsea red - the first in his entire club career. The incident finally brought the game out of control of the referee and both head coaches, turning the endgame into a triumph of British football, reckless and fearless. This spontaneous, based on instincts, and not calculation, ending could turn into any result. Based on the scoring chances, Chelsea was closer to the goal thanks to Robben's torsion kick into the bar. “Tottenham” looked a little more interesting in the game - thanks to the bold and nimble Aaron Lennon, reminiscent of Sean Wright-Philips of better times. Wright Philips himself, hastily picked up by Mourinho from the reserve, also appeared on the field, but did not remind of anything like that.
This victory brought Tottenham to only 10th place in the championship of England - too much was lost at the start, which Spurs frankly did not ask. But the continuation is sure to follow. Martin Yol is gradually moving from the category of “small Dutch” to the European coaching elite, and the team he assembled at White Hart Lane is increasingly becoming the most interesting in the history of Tottenham since the days of the same Lineker and Gascoigne.
After a month and a half of gambling and mental torment, Yol finally found the optimal scheme (4-3-3) and a workable combination of forwards. In addition to the child prodigy Lennon, he is made up of a spirited Robbie Keane and a tenacious, powerful, assertive, as if specially designed for England striker Dimitar Berbatov. While this triumvirate is doing well, Defoe and Mido will have to get used to the bench. The Tottenham defense, half updated on the eve of the season (the sharp and hardy extreme becks of Shimbonda and Assu Ekkoto came), also gained harmony for a long time - but, it seems, it has finally gained. The duet of evil, tall and at the same time technically equipped central defenders Dawson - King is currently among the best in the Premier League. Another rookie, Didier Zokora, almost completely erased the sadness of Tottenham fans about Michael Carrick sold at Manchester United. In the match against Chelsea, he was again excellent. The 23-year-old Jermaine Jenas is also usually good, although not more than half of all advances written to him in his youth justify so far. The situation with the third midfielder has not yet been clarified - Yol seeks, trying either the fading Edgar Davids, the half-forgotten Danny Murphy, the slender Teemu Tanio, the unpredictable Egyptian Hossam Gali. But for some reason it seems that he will certainly find it. If you peer into the standings in search of a club that can follow the Big Four this season (Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool), then here's my candidate. And on Sunday at the White Hart Lane they even talked about the fact that it would be possible to wedge into this four. And I would not dismiss such a prospect right away. Having gotten out of the starting corkscrew, Tottenham have not lost in 9 games in a row.
As for the fireworks, they turned out to be the first victory of Tottenham over Chelsea in 16 years, as it turned out, had nothing to do with - flashes of lights shone the sky all over England. November 5th is the day of Guy Fawkes, an old hero who tried to blow up the parliament, and it is by his grace that it was established in the country that day to destroy tons of pyrotechnics. People have such a tradition.
Dmitry NAVOSHA, London
TOTTENHAM - Chelsea - 2: 1 (1: 1)
Goals: 0: 1 - Makelele (15) , 1: 1 - Dawson (25) , 2: 1 - Lennon (52).
TOTTENHAM: Robinson, Shimbonda, Dawson, King, Assu-Ekotto, Lennon, Zhenas, Zokora, Gali, Berbatov, Robbie Keane (Defoe, 85).
Chelsea: Hilari, Paulo Ferreira (Bularuz, 46; Salomon Kalou, 68), Ricardo Carvalho, Teri, Ashley Cole, Ballack, Makelele (Wright-Phillips, 63), Lampard, Essien, Drogba, Robben.
Warnings: Dawson (17), Paulo Ferreira (25), Ashley Cole (48), Makelele (48), Gali (55), Terry (62), Ballack (66), King (77).
Removal: Terry (72, second warning).
November 5. White Hart Lane, 19.00.
Judge: Graham Pull (Hertfordshire).