The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Lampard outwits old boss in derby victory
PREMIER LEAGUE: Solskjaer hits out at players after United suffer shock defeat
TOTTENHAM 0 CHELSEA 2
Frank Lampard again got the better of Jose Mourinho as Chelsea won 2-0 at Tottenham yesterday but the victory was overshadowed by the alleged racist abuse of Blues defender Antonio Rudiger.
Rudiger appeared to suggest he had been the subject of monkey chants in the second half after his involvement in Son Heung-min’s red card, prompting three stadium announcements saying that “racist behaviour among spectators is interfering with the game”.
It left a cloud over a match which should have been about Lampard, who won five trophies as a Chelsea player under Mourinho, beating his former boss for the second time and ensuring the west London side will spend Christmas in the Premier League’s top four.
It was a polished display on their first visit to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, with Willian’s two first-half goals increasing their advantage over Spurs to six points, ending a run of four defeats in five games.
In contrast, it was an afternoon of self-destruct for Mourinho’s side, who contributed to both goals with poor individual errors while Son was dismissed after an act of petulance on Rudiger was caught by VAR.
Having hauled themselves within touching distance of their rivals under
Mourinho, it seemed like it was in the script for Spurs to overtake them.
But Chelsea clearly had not read that and, with the help of a change of formation, they were the better side from the start.
WATFORD 2 MANCHESTER UNITED 0
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer accused his Manchester United players of treating their game at Watford as a testimonial after they slipped to a shock defeat against the Premier League’s bottom side.
A David De Gea howler allowed Ismaila Sarr to open the scoring before Troy Deeney’s penalty four minutes later secured a 2-0 victory and a first home win of the season for the Hornets.
United were poor for much of the contest but improved slightly following the introduction of Paul Pogba, who came off the bench to make his first appearance since September following an ankle injury.
The Red Devils have struggled against teams in the bottom half of the table this season and have won just one of the last 17 games in which they have enjoyed a larger portion of possession.
“The first half it could easily have been my testimonial,” he said.
“And it might have been a better atmosphere at my testimonial, to be fair. It was very subdued, slow, no tempo, urgency.
“Any bit of encouragement their crowd got was when we gave them setplays. And we gave them two goals in the second half.
“Today is not about the amount of possession – it’s about quality, how we do things and the two goals we conceded.
“The first one, a big goal, was from a mistake. The second goal as well, it’s a bad mistake making a tackle. So two goals in three minutes made it hard for us.”