Brilliant Spurs Blew It

Let’s get it straight. Spurs fully deserved to win this F.A. Cup tie, end Chelsea’s long unbeaten home record and cruise through to the semi-finals. For their failure to do so they have only themselves to blame. Or at least some of them have.

The conventional wisdom is that this was a thrilling game in which Spurs raced into a 3-1 lead and then a magnificent rally by the Premiership Champions earned them a replay at White Hart Lane which at half-time few would have predicted. But that’s only half true. It was a thrilling game.

What is particularly frustrating for Tottenham fans desperate for glory is that Spurs were magnificent in almost every respect. They raced into a five minute lead when Berbatov raced onto Lennon’s pass and hammered the ball past Petr Cech and within the next 15 minutes they squandered chances to go further ahead when Defoe squared for Lennon and Berbatov set up Defoe. Then Lampard stuck out a foot as Ballack’s shot was going wide and suddenly the game was level.

It might have been the signal for Chelsea to impose their remorseless, colourless, mechanical interpretation of the game, but Spurs piled on the pressure and forced Essien to concede an own goal, then made it 3-1 at half-time as Ghaly swept through.

Forget anything you might have heard about a one-sided second half. Within five minutes of the interval, Cech saved brilliantly from Lennon and then Defoe. Zokora in particular spurned at least half a dozen easy chances to produce through balls to penetrate Chelsea’s woeful central defence. Then on the brink of full time Defoe’s shot flashed past the despairing Cech and on to the bar. And in between all Chelsea seemed to offer was an aerial bombardment and a spot of vintage cheating from Robben and Ballack.

So why did Spurs fail? First there were the missed chances – enough to have scored at least six goals. Then the poor defending, which allowed Chelsea the two goals that brought them back into the game – first when Lampard was left free to smash the ball in from close range and then when Dawson’s slack marking permitted Kalou to volley an 86th minute equaliser home. But above all it was Martin Jol’s incomprehensible substitutions that did the damage. Berbatov is a top striker and even if he was injured, he would have accomplished more standing still than an embarrassing Egyptian who moves like a candidate for Celebrity Fit Club, if only if was a celebrity. Then just to make things easier for Chelsea, Jol removed the dangerous Lennon in favour of Malbranque. And by the time he had introduced Gardner the message to Chelsea was clear – come and get us. So they did.

The tragedy of this encounter is that Spurs played so well, yet still managed to blow the chance of inflicting a really big defeat on their rivals. And as it is extremely unlikely that Chelsea will perform as badly as that again, it could turn out to have been the last chance.