It was not at all a good New Year’s day for Chelsea who were completely taken aback by a hurricane at the White Hart Lane. Inspired by Harry Kane’s performance, Tottenham Hotspur registered a 5-3 victory over the Barclays Premier League 2014-15 leaders Chelsea. The 21-year-old’s brace in addition to goals from Danny Rose, Andros Townsend and Nacer Chadli propelled the north London club up to fifth place in the league table.
The Blues came into this clash on the back of a 1-1 draw against Southampton last Sunday. Nevertheless, having registered a 3-0 victory in the reverse fixture at Stamford Bridge last month, Jose Mourinho would have hoped for much of the same when Diego Costa tapped home just two yards out in the 18th minute. No one could have foreseen what followed beginning from the 30th minute.
Kane saw little space after cutting in towards the middle of the field from the left by managing to evade Cesc Fabregas and Oscar. The England U21 international went for glory and managed to see his shot roll into Thibaut Courtois’ bottom right-hand corner to bring his side level. Spurs raced into a 3-1 before half-time as Rose tapped home from close range and after Nacer Chadli’s shot came off the upright.
Kane was once again responsible as he managed to win a penalty off Gary Cahill’s challenge which Andros Townsend duly converted. The home side picked up from where they left off with Kane netting his second goal of the match to take his tally to 16 in all competitions this season. Federico Fazio’s error gave Chelsea a small lifeline as Eden Hazard made the most of the Argentinean’s error to make it 4-2.
Chadli did hit the upright in the first-half but this time got his name on the scoresheet. Kane played the ball to the Belgian, who held his nerve to beat Courtois in the 77th minute to make it 5-2. Once again, Chelsea managed to reduce the margin to two-goal but this time through their John Terry. The 34-year-old skipper had no struggle to tap the ball into an unguarded net after Branislav Ivanovic’s scuffed shot found him unmarked at the far post to make it 5-3.
The defeat meant that Chelsea’s advantage at the top of the league table was completely lost as Manchester City had managed to beat Sunderland 3-2. The result at the Etihad gave Manuel Pellegrini’s side the opportunity to go level on all aspects with the Blues, with only the alphabetical order keeping them in the second place momentarily.
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