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MOTD: Tottenham Hotspur 0-0 Chelsea

By on November 29, 2015

Even when Chelsea earned a solid point away against an in-form Tottenham Hotspur, Jose Mourinho created a narrative of strife and controversy for Chelsea as he resumed his clash of egos with Diego Costa.  The pair had engaged in a very public quarrel on the touchline in Chelsea’s midweek meeting with Maccabi Tel Aviv and although Mourinho patched up the situation afterward, he gave his forward the cold shoulder tonight and kept Costa out of his starting lineup.

Costa opted out of pre-match warmups in retaliation and brooded on the touchline, stuffed deep into his jacket. Late on he half-heartedly jogged out to go through the motions of light stretches in the corner but returned to the dugout clearly disgruntled when Mourinho used his last two substitutions to bring on Kenedy and Ruben Loftus-Cheek. Costa ripped off his pink bib and lobbed it over his head in the direction of Mourinho in a show of frustration.  Beside him, John Obi Mikel couldn’t keep from chuckling at the absurdness of the dramatized feud.

Eden Hazard started in Costa’s place to spearhead a 4-2-3-1 that was very cautious going forward. Hazard made seventy-one sprints, more than any other player on the pitch per the BBC, but he was inconsistent up front and his biggest flaw was exposed in the first half when he mishit a header from Oscar’s cross, although he did force Hugo Lloris into an excellent stop on the other side of the break with a low volley from a tight angle — Chelsea’s only shot on target.

Tottenham will be disappointed they couldn’t capitalize on The Blues’ poor run of form, but to the visitors’ credit, Chelsea were very solid defensively as Cesar Azpilicueta returned to the starting lineup, especially given an injury to John Terry. They kept Harry Kane, who made the fewest touches of any Spurs outfield player who played the full ninety minutes, very quiet and managed their first clean sheet of the season away from home. It was also their third consecutive clean sheet in all competitions. The match was certainly a building block for Mourinho’s men, but the gaffer’s compliments (he said it was “the best Chelsea this season,” and “I think we have a team again”) seemed more shots at Costa than anything else.

Mauricio Pochettino’s men began the game brightly and Spurs tested Asmir Begovic with Son Heung-min’s header and Mousa Dembele’s low drive. Yet their energy tailed off in the second half as they began to feel the fatigue from their long road trip on Thursday. In the end, they did well to keep Chelsea at a blank, with Pedro coming close from outside the box on multiple occasions.

Yet both will have to shake their caution should they rebound to mount serious title challenges.

Homepage photo credit: Ben Sutherland, via Flickr

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.