Tottenham 1-1 Chelsea: Now that was a Christmas cracker!

What a game of football it was last night. Tottenham dominated the first part of the game, Chelsea then got back into it, Spurs had to make a change to their formation and Chelsea dominated and should have won the game but then Spurs could have nicked it right at the end. It had everything!.

Both teams would be happy to take a point away from this one and both would feel as though they should have won it!. It was a great London derby.

I was disappointed with the goal we conceded as I thought Ivanovic could have covered Bosingwa better and Cech should have gathered the cross better. You can't really blame Cech as with Adebayor flying into the meet the cross and Cech coming out head first, you can understand why he was hesitant!. As I said, Ivanovic could have done better. Why go square onto Bale when Bosingwa had already done so? It was obvious that he would get passed him so why didn't Ivanovic drop off and cover the cross coming in?. Both mistakes were made and we went a goal down and deservedly so!.

All credit to us though for digging in!. How Sturridge blazed the rebound from a Juan Mata shot I will never know even if Ledley King got a toe to it!. He made up for it after a good move from the blues found Cole down the left from a deflection off his arm after Van Der Vaart tried to make a challenge. It was handball, but was point blank and Cole didn't really know anything about it. He looked up as he got to the byline, composed himself and drilled a fantastic cross across the goal to an unmarked Sturridge who clipped the ball into the empty net!. 1-1.

Both sides continued to press each other and create openings. It was end to end and everything you expect from the game. We nearly went in a goal up as Bosingwa crossed to the far post for Drogba who chested the ball into his path and smacked a volley onto the near post from 8 yards too!. Chelsea had made a recovery and were now back in their stride.

The second half Chelsea started even stronger because of an enforced change to the Spurs shape. Van Der Vaart had to be replaced and Spurs had to switch to a 4-4-2 formation. With the extra man Chelsea were forcing Spurs backwards, their forwards were struggling to get hold of the ball and make it stick because Chelsea were in the ascendancy now.

How many chances did we have in the second half to win the game?. Drogba played Ramires through and Friedel blocked his shot. Terry flicked the ball on at the near post from a corner and Ramires again misread the flight of the ball when he could have headed it home at the far post. Oriol Romeu shot just wide from outside the box and Juan Mata couldn't get on the end of a Sturridge cross to slot home from 10 yards!. The worst miss of the game came at the death. A cross was swung over into the box and Ramires again, this time totally unmarked lost his bearings and headed the ball just wide when the goal was gaping from just 10 yards again!.

We definitely had our chances to win this, but so did Spurs!. Adebayor had a goal disallowed which replays showed was maybe marginal, William Gallas could have scored but put the ball wide from 2 yards outside the near post from another great ball in and John Terry cleared off the line from Adebayor again with Cech beaten with one of the last kicks of the game!

All in all I was really pleased with the way we played. After the initial onslaught from Spurs, we composed ourselves, got our shape together and played well.

AVB said everyone played their part last night and he is right but I do still think a couple of players deserve a mention.

Ramires but for his finishing was once again outstanding as was Meireles. Meireles did alot of the dirty work well last night and ran his socks off, what more can you ask for. JT, despite the obvious abuse he was always going to get commanded the back four and was once again brilliant, Ashley Cole played well, Paulo Ferreira considering he hasn't played in god knows how long came in and did a great job and finally Jose Bosingwa looked far more composed at centre back defensively than he ever has at right back!

So we come away with a point from White Hart Lane which we would have taken before the game. However, it was the performance from the team that impressed me more. We put in another shift similar to Man City and Newcastle and far better than we did at Wigan!

We just need to build on this again for Fulham on Boxing Day and Villa on New Years Eve, both at home and we expect six points. If we can show the desire and quality we have in those two, we should do well.

So the blood and thunder we expected from last night wasn't exactly that but a hard fought Christmas cracker which both sides will come away from thinking that although they had the chances to win it, also had chances to lose it too!. Chelsea proved to everyone that we still have the class to be involved in the title race and shouldn't be written off. Spurs showed everyone that they ARE serious title challengers too and the progress they have made with Harry Redknapp shouldn't be underestimated!.

What a game!

KTBFFH

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