A Christmas nightmare saw Tottenham downed 2-0 by Chelsea
By Gary Pearson
A miserable start to the festive period saw Tottenham’s worst performance under Jose Mourinho, with things going from bad to worse in his side’s 2-0 loss to Chelsea.
An awful start from Spurs and, in particular, Serge Aurier, whose mistimed header was compounded by the Ivorian switching off on the resultant corner, and Tottenham were down within 12 minutes. Willian punished Aurier, who fell asleep prior to the corner and then inexplicably showed the Brazilian the centre of the pitch.
Aurier has shown substantial improvement since Mourinho took the helm at Spurs. But Aurier’s erratic Doppelganger reared its ugly head once more, proving yet again how desperately Tottenham require a reinforcement at right back.
Costly mistakes and a lack of discipline dominated the headlines, with Paulo Gazzaniga committing a howler that led to Chelsea’s second, right on the stroke of halftime. Tottenham were handsomely outplayed in the first half but would have taken some solace going into the interval down only one.
But, incomprehensibly, Gazzaniga went full Karate Kid on Marcos Alonso. Merely needing to corral the bouncing ball with his mitts, Gazaniga lost track of the pace and flight of the ball, his resultant fly kick taking Alonso well and truly out of it. VAR correctly reversed Anthony Taylor’s on-field decision, and Willian slotted home the resultant penalty to Spurs’ chagrin.
On an aside, Taylor endured as horrific a match as Spurs, not helping our cause at all.
About halfway through the second half, Son Heung-Min momentarily lost his head, leading to his instant dismissal. He kicked out at Rudiger from the floor, barely making contact with Chelsea’s centre half. The lack of contact, however, was a moot point. As soon as Son deliberately kicked out, there was only one eventuality. A moment of madness saw Son receive his marching orders on yet another VAR review.
Spurs managed their first corner only 15 minutes from time, such was the listlessness of Tottenham’s overall display. The 2-0 score line somewhat flattered Tottenham, who couldn’t, barring Harry Kane’s harmless deflection in the 97th minute, muster a single shot on target throughout.
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Hopefully Boxing Day has more festive cheer, as another display like this will ruin Tottenham faithful’s Christmases.