Giroud and Alonso silence the mole in Chelsea camp
Jose Mourinho’s moles might have been right, but the Portuguese and his Tottenham Hotspur players got it badly wrong at Stamford Bridge.
Spurs head coach Mourinho had on Friday claimed he had been told his former club Chelsea would return to a back three for their visit and matched his team up accordingly.
Last night he insisted he had simply guessed, but Chelsea head coach Frank Lampard was ready for his old manager to delve into his book of tricks and got his own big calls spot on.
Goals from returning duo Olivier Giroud and Marcos Alonso kept Chelsea ahead of their London rivals in the race for the top four, and maintained Lampard’s 100 per cent record, three wins out of three, as a manager against Mourinho.
“You always look clever when your decisions come off and you’re called an idiot when they don’t,” Lampard said. “I’m delighted for them both because it’s not easy for these lads when they are not playing regularly. What you get with Oli is quality, you know his attributes. And a game where I expected Tottenham to be deep, which they were in the first half, you know you can find him and he can bring people into the game and then you know he can finish, and Marcos’s finish was top drawer as well.”
Asked whether he thought Mourinho could have received inside information, Lampard replied: “That’s the world we live in. When someone has worked at the club before, I think that can happen.”
Giroud’s goal was his first in the Premier League this season, against the club who had wanted to sign him to solve their own striker crisis during the January transfer window.
Alonso’s most notable contribution ahead of this game had been his performance in the victory over Mourinho’s Tottenham in December.
Mourinho could not claim he had not been warned and yet he matched 20-year-old defender Japhet Tanganga up against him and the youngster understandably struggled.
There were also questions asked over Mourinho’s decision not to start Dele Alli, despite being without injured duo Harry Kane and Son Heungmin. He had thrown down his water bottle and boots after being substituted in the Champions League against RB Leipzig but he is the third highest scorer behind Kane and Son and has been a thorn in Chelsea’s side.
Mourinho had complained he was having to fire a gun with no bullets without Kane and Son, and returned to his old home without an intention to attack. According to him, he had no other choice: “With what we have at the moment and the power we don’t have, it’s very difficult to do better.
“We have three long months to go, in three competitions, so it’s going to be three long months for us. Look at Chelsea, they played a World Cupwinning striker up front, England’s second striker on the bench and Belgium’s second striker in the stands. We had no strikers on the pitch, no strikers on the bench and two in hospital.”
Lampard’s decision to drop Willian, who has a habit of scoring against Spurs, looked risky but Ross Barkley and Mason Mount, who started on either side of Giroud, played a part in both goals.
Mount had seen an effort saved by Hugo Lloris and Barkley shot narrowly wide before Chelsea took the lead in the 15th minute. Jorginho played a wonderful pass through for Giroud whose shot was stopped by Lloris. Barkley hit the post with the followup but the Frenchman brilliantly converted the rebound.
Chelsea survived a video assistant referee check on a possible offside against Giroud, but were later aggrieved when the technology did not award a second-half red card for Giovani Lo Celso for what looked a clear stamp on Cesar Azpilicueta. Word later came through from Stockley Park that the VAR, David Coote, had got it wrong.
Chelsea doubled their lead three minutes after the break. Mount controlled the ball superbly on the right and shifted it to Barkley in the centre, who teed up Alonso to find the corner of the net with a sweet left-foot shot.
It took Mourinho until the 78th minute to send Alli on in place of Steven Bergwijn, by which time his Chelsea moles would presumably long since have given up on their information inspiring a result.
Chelsea should have extended their advantage as substitutes Tammy Abraham and Willian both went close with the Brazilian hitting the crossbar from a free-kick, before Spurs substitute Erik Lamela set up a nervy couple of minutes by squeezing the ball into the net via the heel of Antonio Rudiger.
Chelsea will be hoping the result can be the start of a big finish to the season.