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Chelsea into outright second after Spurs botch two-goal lead, Gunners miss perfect opportunity
Andrew Slevison • December 9th, 2024 9:15 am
Chelsea has moved into outright second on the Premier League table following a remarkable 4-3 comeback win over Tottenham on Sunday.
At Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Ange Postecoglou’s side blew a two-goal lead in a topsy-turvy affair riddled with errors and questionable defending.
Spurs struck the opening goal in the fifth minute when Chelsea youth product Dom Solanke expertly finished a Brennan Johnson cross following a defensive slip from Marc Cucurella.
The home side was then two to the good six minutes later when Spanish defender Cucurella again slipped, giving the ball away in a dangerous spot which resulted in Dejan Kulusevski slotting it beyond Blues keeper Robert Sanchez from the edge of the area.
The Blues pulled one back on 17 minutes through Jadon Sancho who darted a devastating effort beyond Fraser Forster from outside the box.
The on-loan Manchester United winger was in a creative mood just before the hour-mark, his through ball resulting in a penalty after Moises Caicedo was felled in the area. Cole Palmer stepped up and put the spot kick away with minimal fuss.
Enzo Fernandez gave Chelsea a 3-2 lead when meeting a bouncing ball with a left-footed volley on 73 minutes before Palmer again converted from 12 yards in the 84th minute with a cheeky panenka.
Spurs grabbed a consolation goal through captain Son Heung-min in injury time but the damage had been done.
The winning result, a fourth in a row in the league, sees Enzo Maresca’s Chelsea move to 31 points - just four in arrears over league leader Liverpool who have a game in hand.
The Reds’ Merseyside derby clash with Everyone over the weekend had to be postponed due to the weather conditions brought on by Storm Darragh.
Arsenal missed a great opportunity to place pressure on Liverpool, drawing 1-1 with Fulham at Craven Cottage.
The Cottagers scored first through Raul Jimenez before the Gunners levelled via yet another set piece, this time with William Saliba prodding home a Kai Havertz back-post header following a corner.
Arsenal scored what they thought was a winner late in the piece through Bukayo Saka, however, Gabriel Martinelli had been adjudged offside in the build-up.
The draw has Mikel Arteta’s Gunners third on 29 points
In other Sunday Premier League results, Bournemouth came from a goal down to edge Ipswich Town 2-1 at Portman Road while Leicester City forced a 2-2 home draw with Brighton having trailed by two goals until very late.
