Chelsea on Thursday climbed into the top six of the English Premier League as Thomas Tuchel earned the first major victory of his short time in charge of the Blues with a 1-0 win at Tottenham Hotspur.
Jorginho’s penalty midway through the first half was scant reward for Chelsea’s dominance on another damaging night for Spurs coach Jose Mourinho against his former club.
“We are super happy about the result. It was a tough game against a strong opponent, but we did very well and controlled the game well,” said Tuchel, who took seven points from three games in his first eight days in charge.
Photo: AFP
“It’s not about my methods. I’m happy with the attitude, the squad, the potential,” he said. “It’s a nice group and they are open. It’s a pleasure to be around them. We have a lot of support in the whole club. It was a quick start, but an easy one because I feel very welcome.”
Since a 2-0 victory over Arsenal in early December last year took Spurs top of the table, they have won just twice in their past 10 league games to not only see hopes of a first league title in 60 years disappear, but their chances of making the top four rapidly recede.
For the first time in Mourinho’s managerial career, he lost back-to-back home league games.
Spurs are eighth, seven points off the UEFA Champions League places and behind Chelsea. A run of 13 points from 12 games is also worse than the slow start to last season that saw Mauricio Pochettino sacked as Spurs boss, 12 matches into the campaign.
Tottenham were again without the injured Harry Kane, but that still did not excuse a complete lack of attacking threat from Mourinho’s men, as they failed to score for the second consecutive game.
“You know what Harry means for the confidence of the players,” Mourinho said. “The reality of the first half was with them being superior, was a penalty that decided the first half and that decided the game. I believe in the second half we deserved more than what we got.”
Timo Werner could have scored inside a minute with a looping header that sailed just wide.
Chelsea did not concede a single shot on target to Burnley or Wolverhampton Wanderers in their previous two games and quickly established complete control of the ball once more, with Spurs happy to sit deep and wait for their chance to counterattack.
However, Spurs’ defensive resolve was undone on 24 minutes when Eric Dier unnecessarily swept away Werner’s legs from under him inside the penalty area.
Jorginho had missed three penalties already this season, but cut out his usual stutter-step run-up and smashed the ball low past Hugo Lloris.
Spurs started the second half with far more intent to press Chelsea high up the pitch, but in doing so opened themselves up to some slick passing from Tuchel’s men.
Callum Hudson-Odoi fired a low shot just wide, before Serge Aurier’s last-ditch tackle denied Werner his first Premier League goal since November last year.
Despite the absence of Kane, Gareth Bale was again left on the bench after failing to make an impact in the defeat at Brighton & Hove Albion on Sunday in his first Premier League start for nearly three months.
Mourinho instead introduced Lucas Moura and Erik Lamela in a bid to make a breakthrough.
Lamela produced his side’s only shot on target with a long-range effort that Edouard Mendy comfortably parried to safety.
Tottenham’s big chance to level came four minutes from time when Carlos Vinicius headed wide from point-blank range.
Tuchel cut an animated figure on the touchline as his side failed to make the game safe, but let out a satisfied scream of “yes” at fulltime after passing his first big test as Chelsea boss with flying colors.
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