Tottenham 1-1 Chelsea
Full-time And that is that. A decent ding-dong that saw Tottenham take the early momentum and the early lead only for Terry and Chelsea to turn the tide
93 mins Spurs keep the ball, look dangerous, build play and then Chadli absolutely balloons it over from about 25 yards out. What. A. Waste.
90 mins There will be four more minutes of this.
87 mins This is all Spurs now as they pile pressure on top of pressure on top of pressure. They have had a few chances to go with that but Sigurdsson's was the best with his shot from outside the box just skimming past the Chelsea post.
"I was in a lift alone with AVB a week or so ago. A very courteous, slightly self-effacing, but interesting man who answered my questions and also asked his own. There is something of the Wenger about him. A pleasure to be with," says David Farrington. Wow! What's his hair like that close up?
82 mins Azpilicueta replaces Oscar.
RED CARD! Vertonghen and Torres have kept up their hi-jinks throughout the second half and the Spaniard has now (wrongly) paid the price for it. Both players rise and challenge for the ball, that's it, nothing more. A simple aerial challenge. But the Chelsea man, somehow, is deemed to have led with his elbow and he sees red. A terrible decision from Dean that is going to cost Chelsea.
76 mins Defoe enters the game, Soldado exits. Elsewhere, Lloris has just pulled off a very decent save after Schurrle broke through the Spurs defence from a Torres pass and Dembele is the 10,000 name to enter the yellow book - t'was for talking back. (Lampard wasted the resulting free-kick by smacking it right into the wall).
75 mins Would Spurs fans take a point now? Dawson, meanwhile, has taken down Torres in a dangerous position and also gone to the yellow. side Mata sends it in but a free-kick is awarded for offside against Ivanovic.
73 mins John Terry has now scored eight goals more than any other defender in the history of the Premier league, don'tchaknow?
69 mins Hazard goes, Schurrle comes. Eriksen goes, Holtby comes.
68 mins Why doesn't Mata always start?
GOAL! Well, well. Chelsea are back. Big time. Ramires plays a nice one-two but is stopped in his tracks by a hefty challenge from Vertonghen, who is the latest lad to take a yellow. Mata stands over the free-kick before whipping in the most delicious of balls that Terry rises, unmarked, and heads the ball past Lloris with ease. Tottenham 1-1 Chelsea (Terry)
"I'd go for AVB. I suspect Mourinho has an unpleasant 'old man' smell to him these days, that he doesn't realize," reckons Daniel Farthing.
62 mins Spurs make their first change of the game. Off goes Townsend, on comes Chadli.
60 mins There is more handbags between Vertonghen and Torres. The striker kicks the ball away. He is fired up but he will have to be careful.
57 mins Mike Dean doesn't like the way Ivanovic talks backs to him so his name goes in the yellow book too.
56 mins Spurs get a corner on their right hand side. Eriksen plays it deep, Dawson is there but can do nothing with it. The ball comes out to Dembele who eases outside Ivanovic and sends a ball across the box which no man in white can get on the end of. At the other end, Mata has the ball in the net from Torres' knockdown but he be offside.
54 mins AVB looks worried. Chelsea are just pouring through his midfield right now. Expect Sandro any minute now.
52 mins It's all Torres now! He has just made an absolute stonker of a run from just past the half-way line, weaving in and out before forcing a good save from Lloris.
50 mins Speaking of Torres, him and Vertonghen have just had a little bit of the handbag stuff after the striker clipped the defender and then raised his hands. He, Torres, gets a yellow for his efforts.
48 mins He was quiet in the first half but this is more like the Torres of old. He gets the ball with his back to goal, turns and powers his way down the right wing and into acres of space. He sends the most dangerous of balls across the box and Oscar comes sprinting in at the back post but he can't get a decent touch on it and the score remains the same.
46 mins Well, well. We are back. And so too is Juan Mata. He replaces Mikel. Chelsea ended that half the better team, dominating possession but failing to do anything with it. In fact, Chelsea have now gone 227 minutes without a Premier League goal away from home. Can they change that?
45 mins And that's all for now folks. Bit of house keeping to do here before my half-time cup of tea and dressing-down from the boss. Townsend was shown yellow for an apparent dive under a challenge from Lampard. But his name is not the only one in the book. So too is Eriksen's for a foul on Oscar. Back in a few.
44 mins ... Tottenham have almost made it 2-0. A lovely back-heel from Walker sends Townsend forward on the right. He weaves his way down the wing and plays the dinkiest of passes to Paulinho whose shot was only stopped by the post.
42 mins BAH! Technical issues mean I have just missed the reason why the first yellow card of the game - which was a bit overdue after the industrial challenges that have been going in over the last few minutes - has been awarded to Townsend. We'll have to come back to that because ...
39 mins Vertonghen goes through the back of Torres and quite rightly, a free-kick is given (though oddly no yellow card). The ball is then swung into the Chelsea box and Lloris comes out to No Man's Land swinging and clearing the ball. T'was a risky move from one of the best in the league but it paid off.
"Being stuck in a lift with Mourinho is obviously a very far fetched hypothetical situation; by the time he and his ego got in the lift there wouldn't be room for anyone else," honks Nicholas Brown.
35 mins Chelsea get a throw deep in enemy territory on the right. They move the ball in and back and left and back and forward. Eventually, Hazard is taken down by Walker and Chelsea get a free-kick. That's taken quickly and they move forward a tinsy bit more before eventually winning a corner. That is where the forward momentum stops however as the corner is wasted.
32 mins Ramires gets caught offside and boots the ball away in frustration but the referee doesn't say boo to him about it. Honestly, what is the world coming to? Meanwhile, Luiz has put the boot in on Soldado but he gets away with a warning.
30 mins Poor Nando Torres, he has hardly been in the game at all, Chelsea just can't get the ball to him. If only they had a player like, hmmmmm, I don't know, Juan Mata?
27 mins Chelsea, it is worth nothing, haven't scored away from home this season. If only they had a player like, hmmmmm, I don't know, Romelu Lukaku?
22 mins Oh my stars! That was almost 2-0 to Spurs. They pour forward and put some pressure on the Chelsea defence. Townsend, on the right, sends the ball into Soldado, whose low cross looks to be bound for Paulinho to just tap, tap, tap it in but Ivanovic got across to clear. And what a wonderful clearance it was.
GOAL! My God! The noise! The Spurs fans are going crazy here. Chelsea had played keep-ball for a while but failed to do anything with it. Spurs then move the ball up the field and showed them how it is done. Eriksen gets the ball with his back to goal, he looks to be going nowhere but he spins wonderfully and sends the ball into the box to Soldado. He takes a touch, not a great one, or even a good one, but it is enough to set up Sigurdsson who skips past Terry and slips the ball past Cech from a few yards out. Tottenham 1-0 Chelsea (Sigurdsson)
16 mins Townsend cuts inside from the right, beats one or two Chelsea lads and is up-ended for his troubles. The resulting free-kick is lashed into the box but Terry (who else?) snuffs it out.
Gary A De Forest knows exactly who he would rather be stuck in a lift with: "AVB every time, much more sociable and down to earth. Mourinho seems so "special" he'd just like to keep himself company."
11 mins Jose is already making notes. Guessing it's not to AVB asking him to hanging at the local bowling alley out after school. Spurs, meanwhile, have a free-kick near the left-hand corner of the box after Ivanovic did a foul. It is sent in the box and Vertonghen rises like a salmon. He finish is fishy though and Cech's sheet is still clean.
9 mins A long ball from David Luiz is knocked down by Torres on the edge of the box. It finds its way to the feet of Lampard but he blasts it high and wide. The Spurs fans like that. Hazard meanwhile is down but not out.
7 mins Still all very cagey so far.
5 mins Chelsea's passing around the half-way line is a bit sloppy and the ball goes out for a throw. From that Spurs work the ball left to right to the corner of the Chelsea box but Chelsea, once again, clear the danger. That only goes as far as Eriksen who plays a lovely-jubbly ball to Soldado but, under pressure, the striker fails to control the ball on the edge of the box and Cech smothers it to safety.
3 mins It's all fairly even Stevens so far as both sides knock the ball about and feel their way into the match. Spurs do, however, get the first corner of the game. Eriksen whips it in but Cech catches it with ease and the danger is gone.
1 min OK, OK, here we go, here we go, here we go go go. Spurs are in their spanking white number and Chelsea are draped in their crip blue. The home side are doing their thing in a right to left manner while the away side are doing their thang in the opposite way. The atmosphere is top-notch. Let's hope the football is too. Incidentally, why are the managers shown in their tracksuits when they show the teams? By the way, their handshake went off without any fireworks.
12.38 Sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo, anyone out there? Anyone got any predictions? Any one had anything funny happen to them and want to tell a live blog for a national newspaper all about it? Do holler. Pretty please.
Mr Anonymous Spurs fan says: "Sam Warburton pulled up in car park by White Hart Lane next to my mate half an hour ago."
12.29 Where's Willian?
12.18 Unsurprisingly, these t-shirts are doing a roaring trade outside White Hart Lane...
12.15 The teams are with me. The teams are with you. And they are not without their surprises. Mourinho reckons that Fernando Torres will be a better option up front than Sam Eto'o and so the Spaniard starts for the first time since the opening match against Hull. That's not the only change in the Chelsea side with David Luiz coming in for Gary Cahill. Oh and Ramires, who was an injury doubt for this game, has been passed fit to start so this is his 100th Premier League appearance. As for Spurs, Rose has not recovered from toe-ouch, despite AVB being 90% confident that he would, so Naughton keeps his place. Defoe, who is scoring for fun! fun! fun! these days also keeps his place ... on the bench. Those teams in full are:
Spurs: Lloris, Walker, Dawson, Vertonghen, Naughton, Paulinho, Dembele, Townsend, Eriksen, Sigurdsson, Soldado.
Subs: Chiriches, Lamela, Holtby, Defoe, Chadli, Friedel, Sandro.
Chelsea: Cech, Ivanovic, Luiz, Terry, Cole, Ramires, Mikel, Lampard, Oscar, Torres, Hazard.
Subs: Essien, Mata, Schurrle, Schwarzer, Cahill, Azpilicueta, Eto'o.
Referee: Mike Dean (Wirral)
12.00 If you were to set up some form of closed circuit TV system in the Villas-Boas house it would A) be a little bit creepy, not to mention a clear invasion of privacy, and B) it would show you that André is not up till all hours of the morning p?l?a?y?i?n?g? ?t?h?e? ?n?e?w? ?G?r?a?n?d? ?T?h?e?f?t? ?A?u?t?o? ?g?a?m?e biting his nails, pacing up and down and worrying about whether or not he should get on the blower to José and mend those now famously broken fences.
Andre don't care no more. Yeah, he's rebel like that innit? And why should he care, huh? Peep the Premier League scene at the moment and you will notice that Tottenham Hotspur have won four of their five opening games (not to mention those three Europa League wins and that hammering of Aston Villa in the League Cup). And spread those peepers even wider, say to Europe's top five leagues, and you'll notice that no team has conceded fewer goals than them this season. Oh yes, we almost forgot, they are also joint top of the league with only goal difference stopping them from holding the current crown.
Now if you were to set up some form of closed circuit TV system in the Mourinho house it would A) again be a little bit creepy, not to mention a clear invasion of privacy, and B) show José s?l?e?e?p?s? ?i?n? ?a? ?r?a?c?i?n?g? ?c?a?r is possibly not getting the recommended eight hours. He has a lot to worry about. He is not happy about the club's band of balling - "I don't like the way Chelsea were playing the last couple of years; the club doesn't like it and we want to change" - there has been been a lot talk about his team selections, not one of his strikers has scored a league goal yet this season and worst of all, his team are not top of the table. They are not even in the top two. Or the top three. Or even the top four. Oh wait. They are in the top four. Shock! Horror! Cringe! But then as he rightly added: "It's not the way you start the season but the way you finish."
Given Spurs tendency to collapse when the Champions League places are in sight, they would do well to take said words to heart. But for now they are riding high and will step out on the Tottenham turf confident that they get their first win over Chelsea since April 2010. As soon as AVB announces a team he thinks can do just that, holler shall we.
cfc4life, Manchester, 1 hour ago
surprised that the dm isn't listing teams that are trying to buy him and that he has fallen out with mourinho now that he hasn't travelled with the squad