Premier League - Spurs off mark with Chelsea draw

Eurosport - Mon, 01 Sep 10:00:00 2008

Chelsea lost their 100 per cent start to the new Premier League season when they were held to a 1-1 draw by arch rivals Tottenham at Stamford Bridge.

FOOTBALL 2008-2009 Premier League Chelsea-Tottenham Frank Lampard - 0

Juliano Belletti opened the scoring for the hosts on 28 minutes before Darren Bent opened his account for the campaign with the equaliser on the stroke of half-time.

The result handed Spurs their first point of the season, while the two dropped by Chelsea did not result in losing top spot after Liverpool also failed to win in their goalless draw against Aston Villa in the late kick-off.

It was a stuttering performance from Luiz Felipe Scolari's side, who looked capable of running away with the game during an impressive first half, only to struggle for attacking ideas after the break.

Chelsea set out their stall early on, and the hosts could have taken the lead in the sixth minute, Frank Lampard seeing a brilliantly executed chip tipped over the bar by Spurs' backpeddling keeper Heurelho Gomes.

But that chance apart, the opening exchanges were evenly matched until Chelsea visibly decided to up the tempo. Sure enough the chances began to come thicker and faster.

On 26 minutes, Nicolas Anelka's run was picked out by a lovely Belletti pass but the Frenchman, who is yet to hit his stride this season, fired high and wide despite an assured first touch.

A minute later, it was Michael Essien who threatened to open the scoring. Only a rattling crossbar denied the midfielder a 25-yard effort with Gomes this time beaten all ends up.

But soon after, Chelsea's pressure reaped rewards as Belletti took advantage of Bent's horribly mis-kicked near post clearance from a corner to direct the ball off his leg and into the back of the net.

They hardly needed it, but the goal seemed to give Chelsea further confidence and they went on to dominate the opening period, only to be stunned by the equaliser just before half-time as Bent made amends for his earlier slip.

Prolific in pre-season, Spurs held out high hopes for the striker once the new campaign started but in their opening two games - both defeats - he had been anonymous.

Bent has not been helped by being asked to play a lone forward role in the absence of wantaway striker Dimitar Berbatov - again missing from the squad at Stamford Bridge - but he chose the perfect time to repay the faith Juande Ramos has shown in him.

The goal had an element of fortune about it, the ball ricocheting off Lampard and into the path of Bent who bore down on goal before slotting underneath the advancing Petr Cech.

It was the perfect time for Spurs to score and a blow that Chelsea found difficult to overcome.

Scolari ordered his troops to attack after the break and they responded, although their sorties forward lacked an end result.

Ashley Cole, given a new lease of life under Scolari on the flank this season, got forward as much as he could, firing a cross-shot wide of the far post soon after the restart before Lampard attempted another chip on 54 minutes. This time, Gomes was not troubled, the ball drifting over the bar.

But it was far from the expected siege upon the Spurs goal and as the second half wore on, it became clear that Chelsea were not going to grab a late winner.

Substitute Salomon Kalou came closest with 11 minutes remaining but having just entered the fray the Ivorian striker could only drag his effort wide of the mark.

Mike Hytner / Eurosport

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  1. what a disgrace to chelsae and liverpool, their points droped

    From ebyebyilechie, on Mon 1 Sep 10:49AM

  2. I agree with Fjk. The Premier League is a marathon not a sprint. Come on, theres still another 35 games to go. As the season goes on obviously the teams are going to drop points and the title race will be an enthralling one no doubt. I am a very loyal Chelsea supporter, and having been to the 3 league games this season, apart from against Portsmouth, I have not actually seen Chelsea play that well. I know we have had our chances, i.e Essien hitting the bar and Anelka firing over early on yesturday, but all credit to Spurs, they played well and deserved the point. Until Chelsea start playing the football we all know they are capable of, we are most deffinately going to have a nail biting finish to the season.

    From Shaun, on Mon 1 Sep 8:00AM

  3. We Chealse own no apology to all u jealous entities,weather u like it or not our flag is flying very high in the sky.football is a game of 11/11 and we have been making a reasonable impact since 5years,where is ARSENAL TODAY and their bunch of excuses approach,SPURS is good but no match to chealse.Are we not still on top, you jealous and crying babies,Please learn to respect chealse and the man ABRAM in order to learn technicalities of the game.Stop crying about the millions that you never contributed and nevr u say waste cos you can,t manage a club.The truth is that,there are selling and buying clubs.ARSENAL,LYON,AJAX,PSV ETC are selling clubs.MILLAN,INTER,REAL MADRID,CHELSEA,MAN U,JUVE,LIVERPOOL ETC,are buying club.they make good money in endorsement,tv rights and so on due to quality of players they have assembled.Today and everyday,the world richest club both in media and blance sheet always and must rotate within the buying clubs.Please alway research and learn before you write rubbish without facts in this site.MICHAEL ONYEMETU FRM UK.

    From Miky O, on Mon 1 Sep 7:44AM

  4. As a Man U fan, i was pleased to see both Chelsea and Liverpool drop points; having said that, i do not understand the constant bashing that i am reading. It is going to be a long season and every club will drop more points including the top 4; with the exception of perhaps two maybe three clubs every other team in the Premiership is capable of making life very difficult for each other; less of the bashing and more appreciation of the efforts by the teams who take points when expected not too as was the case at Stamford Bridge yesterday

    From Fjk, on Mon 1 Sep 7:41AM

  5. All I can say is....hurry back Drogba. Is it going to be the same as last year, too many points dropped at home cost Chelsea the league last year. I hope it doesn't happen again; still, early days.

    From monty, on Mon 1 Sep 7:21AM

  6. Abromavich wasted alot of your money on chelsea ,you should give to UNICEF it would be very helpful.....!!!!!!

    From maransugu81, on Mon 1 Sep 6:51AM

  7. Go for it, Spurs! I'm moving back to North London this month and may start to rebuild past North London ties, after ten years of being away, by supporting Spurs since they may have developed their form after all these years.

    From mikalaiho, on Mon 1 Sep 6:50AM

  8. well done spurs ,, from a pompey fan

    From Chris, on Mon 1 Sep 5:46AM

  9. hey chelsea are not that good they beat an under par pompey team who on that day anyone would of beat then struggled in the next game 1 o , and again against sorry to say a poor spurs side , who i give credit to to get the draw they deserved so again chelsea look normal play tight and hard at them and they hate it , pompey let them have all the room they wanted hence the 4 goals , people keep saying chelsea this and how they are a great team , its all paper talk like newcastle saying they are champion team, and we all know they are not and i think chelsea think this way , papers saying they are the best world beaters the players think this then cant perform this on the field , so i am glad all say chelsea for the title , it takes the pressure off man u , who will again win the title this season , and lets hope the russian who pays so stupid money for players loses it all as he is causing the stupid transfer fees a little kid with someone elses money he stole and if he dont get what he wants sacks them , how many managers at this great club ???

    From Chris, on Mon 1 Sep 5:42AM

  10. What a disgrace to football Chelsea are. Their cry boy Captain doesn't even have the guts to congratulate Sir Alex and the Man U team, instead choosing to blub his eyes out. They chop and change their Managers. They have falsely inflated the transfer market with their ridiculous spending and wages. They even defend appalling players like Shevchenko. They will end up with nothing this year.
    What about having some honest, hard-working players for a change. Well done Spurs.

    From Jon, on Mon 1 Sep 4:15AM

  11. Keep trying Chelsea haters! You're so close to a coherent thought...

    From Andrew, on Mon 1 Sep 12:14AM

  12. Who really cares about chelsea? As soon as abramovich gets bored and leaves chelea fans will go back to supporting whoever wins the league. Its all so predictable.

    From manu0862@..., on Sun 31 Aug 11:17PM

  13. Guaranteed usual defeat at the Moscow Bridge, but hey we survived with a creditable point.Consider this Chelski 'fans' if Roman your man suddenly becomes bored with all things blue,could your arch rival be the catalyst for your downward spiral.Think on...but that could be a problem!! SPURED ON HA HA

    From judith.hardwick@..., on Sun 31 Aug 10:07PM

  14. It's always the same at spurs pre-season they look like there gonna win everything than ! the first day of the season
    it falls apart .Spurs needs to do something and the draw today is not the answer .

    From Ray O, on Sun 31 Aug 10:00PM

  15. Go Spurs must admit though i wa expecting us to get thrashed but we showed grit and got a resuilt,all we need now is another 100 mil to spend and maybe we can challenge the top 4 well done.

    From dug.torso, on Sun 31 Aug 9:52PM

  16. There seems to be a lot of Chelsea bashing going on here but not a lot of congratulating Spurs on a game well played. In the first half Spurs largely had control; the trouble was that they didn't look too threatening, and when Chelsea were on the (mainly counter-) attack they looked much more likely to score. However when the second half rolled around there was only one team who looked as though they might score and that was Spurs - I even acknowledge the last minute onslaught when I say that.

    Well done Spurs - I never thought I'd be so pleased to see you in 19th!

    From not_blonde_really, on Sun 31 Aug 9:15PM

  17. as a tottenham fan i am delighted that we managed to get a point away at chelsea ! but i feel like im the only tottenham fan who still thinks that we have a serious problem that we didnt really threaten from upfront yet again. As the goal came from a bit of luck which spurs rarely get ! we did have have arguablly the best strike force in the premiership and then we get rid of them and dont replace them. So spurs please stop trying to buy tallents like the czech un 21 striker and just splash out on a BIG name. Hopefully pavlechenko justifys the hype

    From mcginleynantwich, on Sun 31 Aug 9:11PM

  18. Thats right!
    You've played Professionally so your the greatest!!!!!!!
    So you know everything!!!!!!!!!
    Here's one for you, your majesty.
    What happens when or if chelsea lose Drogba or, and another striker.
    Who's gonna do the business, then.
    The business being that 1-1draw against totenham.
    And as for the rest of the blah blah blah, anyone could have got all that rubbish from sky sports.
    So when was it that your career as a professional footballer at Exeter City earning 120k a week, ended???????

    From paul, on Sun 31 Aug 8:41PM

  19. I really don't know why they didn't let lampard leave when he wanted to, he is over rated.He has nothing to his game, no technique! All he does is to shoot and hope, he is played out. And what is it with good players coming to chelsea and messing up? SWP is back @ Man. city and scoring, woun't be surprised if Sheva gets back his old form as well

    From Dayo D, on Sun 31 Aug 8:20PM

  20. shenelka.

    From Danny J, on Sun 31 Aug 8:07PM
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