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In what was another Premier League classic early Sunday evening, Tottenham Hotspur couldn’t manage properly a two-goal cushion they had under 11 minutes from two Marc Cucurella’s slip ups.
Both teams entered the clash in contrasting form, and with Chelsea thumping nine-man Spurs 4-1 in the corresponding fixture from last season, they seemed as though the side to beat in this matchup.
Dominic Solanke’s well-taken opener and Dejan Kulusevski’s pinpoint finish puts Spurs two goals up before Jadon Sancho halved the deficit with an out of the box delightful finish, and the Chelsea comeback began.
The action packed first period came to a close with Chelsea trailing 2-1 after several failed close attempts to level before the break.
After resumption and with a little just past the hour mark, Yves Bissouma’s reckless challenge on Moises Caicedo saw Palmer level from the spot on 61 minutes, a successful take which saw him level with Yaya Toure as the most penalties taken without missing in the Premier League.
Spurs’ defence was again all over the place when the in-form Enzo Fernandez fired Chelsea into the lead from Cole Palmer’s brilliantly crafted pass to send the blues stand to frenzy and silence the home fans who have been a handful all night throwing several objects at Chelsea players at the slightest of opportunity they get.
Chelsea continued to dominate play oozing confidence and not long after, Palmer won another spot-kick from Sarr’s erratic push from behind, which he coolly dinked beyond Fraser Forster to put Chelsea in absolute control of the game with few minutes left to play. With that second, Palmer has now become the highest-scoring penalty taker in Premier League history with a 100 per cent conversation rate.
Son Heung-min’s stoppage-time strike teed up a nervy ending for Chelsea, but they held firm to move two points clear of Arsenal in second and close gap on Liverpool who has a game in hand, while Spurs sit 11th after a second defeat in the space of three days.
An ecstatic Enzo Maresca will now want to see more intentional defending from his team while demanding more confidence from his No 1 goalkeeper, as he continues to insist Chelsea are not in the title race, but this comeback leaves the Blues within touching distance of Liverpool ahead of hosting Brentford next Sunday.
