Long before the end, gaps were appearing in the white half of Wembley. They had seen this show before. So had we all. The last time he was here Jose Mourinho served notice by winning the League Cup. The Premier League can consider itself told.
Ominously, the goal that made Chelsea comfortable was scored by Diego Costa. Out of sorts since his three-match ban, this was a return to form. He was niggly, irritating, but a striker that any manager in the league would love to have. His goal needed assistance from a deflection off Kyle Walker, but it belonged to him, and no-one else. Striker’s gamble and that is what Costa did with his run – when the ball arrived, from lovely build-up work between Willian and Cesc Fabregas, he made Walker commit and stick a fateful foot out. Chelsea were 2-0 up after 56 minutes and, in this mood, that was the game over.
Mourinho was already in a playful mood, squirting water at a nearby television camera, as if the second-half needed to get wetter. After the agitation that followed the draw at Burnley, here was a man very relaxed and with good reason. Chelsea’s had weathered Tottenham’s first-half storm and then rained on them from a great height. Yes, there was Tottenham pressure, but so there should be – they were chasing the game. Chelsea handled it all with assuredness. Coupled with the result at Anfield, it will have been the happiest this moody bunch have felt in quite some time.
It was a first-half that in many ways reflected the narratives of Chelsea’s season. Eden Hazard got kicked. A lot. Diego Costa put it about. A lot. Jose Mourinho waved his arms in fury. A lot. But Chelsea went in ahead. John Terry saw to that, as he so often does.
The game was only 41 seconds old when Andros Townsend left his mark on Hazard and when, five minutes later, Eric Dier was squaring up to Costa, a familiar pattern was set.
On this occasion, however, it was the Chelsea man whose behaviour deserved, if not official censure, then certainly a quiet word.
Dier’s tackle on his was firm but fair, and there was no need for the shoulder contact Costa sought on rising. His behaviour can be a problem for Chelsea.
It is possible to have sympathy for the club over some of the errors that have cost them this season – particularly penalties rejected in vital matches. Yet Costa’s behaviour provides ammunition for the cynical – those who believe Chelsea deploy the dark arts as deserve any reversal that goes their way.
He was certainly fortunate in the 28th minute, when he planted a hand in the face of Nabil Bentaleb, palming him off as one might in rugby.
Bentaleb, stopped, clutched his face, probably thought of making more of it, decided against this, but looked to referee Anthony Taylor for support. By now, others were involved. Costa could easily have been booked. Instead Taylor settled for keeping the peace.
It was no surprise then that three minutes later Dier was booked for a foul on Costa – although it looked more ferocious than malicious. Further evidence of no quarter given.
Chelsea gave Tottenham an early scare when a cross from Branislav Ivanovic was tipped over by Hugo Lloris in the seventh minute.
Terry was looking to put it in at the back post and no doubt Mauricio Pochettino would argue this was why he went with his first choice, as opposed to Michael Vorm who has been the Capital One Cup goalkeeper this season.
It did seem rather harsh though, turning up with one girl, dancing with another.
Yet that was pretty much it from Chelsea, until the goal, a wild shot from Hazard aside. Tottenham had the best chance of the half, and kept Petr Cech – yes, Mourinho is the better boyfriend – busier.
Replacing Nemanja Matic with Kurt Zouma in the heart of midfield may have been part of Jose Mourinho’s continued protests about injustice – look at what you have done to my team – or another of the manager’s bravura moves on big occasions.
Either way, it made it hard for Chelsea. Zouma is a fine player, and he may one day be a Marcel Desailly type, switching between central defence and defensive midfield as the occasion demands, but Tottenham are tricky, and fast, and this was one hell of a test for the young man. All things considered, he handled it well.
As did Cech, considering he must be a little rusty having spent so much of the season pegged behind Thibaut Courtois. He could do little about the opportunity in the tenth minute though, after Cesc Fabregas had brought down Harry Kane. Christian Eriksen took the free-kick, from position A 25 yards from goal, and struck the crossbar with Cech nowhere near. Maybe he thought it was going over.
Cech had less difficulty with Tottenham’s other attempts, the first from Kane after 11 minutes. He shot low across Cech, as is his style, but the veteran had done his research, knew what was coming and gathered it easily. He did the same when Eriksen fired one in from a tight angle at the near post, Tottenham’s last opportunity of note before Terry struck in the last minute of the half.
It was a scrappy goal, but no less impressive for that because the desire and determination in the Chelsea captain will be almost impossible to replace when it is finally his time. He was once rendered unconscious by a boot in a League Cup final, and tried to persuade the ambulance driver to turn around on the way to the hospital to let him go back and finish the game.
This was a considerably more mundane event, but it curbed Tottenham’s swagger and set Chelsea on course for victory.
Willian’s free-kick from the right clipped Danny Rose and ricocheted around off Zouma and Dier before falling to Terry, who with great certainty of thought struck it through a crowd of players. Mourinho was on his way to the first trophy of his second coming. It will not be his last.
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