Tottenham Hotspur beat Chelsea 2-0 in the Premier League on Sunday with second-half goals from Oliver Skipp and Harry Kane keeping Spurs in the hunt for a topfour finish and extending the Blues’ miserable run under coach Graham Potter.
Seconds after the break, Skipp picked up a clearance by Chelsea’s Enzo Fernandez and fired in from more than 20 yards, his shot going in off the bar after Kepa Arrizabalaga could not get enough of a hand on it.
Kane secured the three points for Spurs when he pounced at the far post after a corner by Son Heung-min was flicked on by Eric Dier in the 82nd minute.
Chelsea, who failed to score for fourth time in five league games despite spending around $358 million on players in January alone, failed to create any clear-cut chances to get themselves back into the game.
The win — the first for the hosts in nine league games against Chelsea — kept Spurs fourth in the table, four points ahead of fifth-placed Newcastle United who have played two games less.
Chelsea sit in 10th position, 14 points behind Spurs. Potter’s side have now won only two games in their last 15 in all competitions.
The hosts had come closest to breaking the deadlock in the early stages when PierreEmile Hojbjerg saw his deflected effort go past a motionless Arrizabalaga but hit the right-hand post.
The biggest talking point of an underwhelming first half was referee Stuart Attwell’s initial decision to send off Chelsea’s Hakim Ziyech after a melee that saw visiting forward Kai Havertz and home defender Emerson Royal booked.
Having administered yellow cards to those players, Attwell dismissed the Morocco winger for a raised arm on the advice of his assistant referee before downgrading it to a yellow after the video assistant referee recommended that the official review his decision.
“It’s a really important result. Chelsea are a top team, tough to play against, and we struggle at home against them,” Kane said after the match.
“We played really well, especially in the second half when we put our foot on the pedal, and we earned the win. We spoke a lot recently about how clean sheets are going to win you games and we’ve done that well apart from the Leicester game, which was a blip. If we want to be around the top-four at the end of the season we’ll need more performances like this,” he added.
Skipp got his first goal for Spurs and was excited. “The first goal is always a special one and it means a lot. I think I cut across it slightly, it wasn’t completely perfect, but we work a lot in training on getting to those second balls on the edge of the box. It just bounced up nicely and I thought I’d give it a hit!”
Written with inputs from Reuters
