By Henry Vinter | 18 December 2055
They have destroyed teams 5-0. They have played exhibition football. They have made the Premier League look like a training ground exercise. But on Saturday afternoon at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Chelsea proved they can do the dirty work too.
In a North London Derby that was less a football match and more a 90-minute argument, Calin Dimario’s side scraped past Tottenham 1-0 to extend their improbable winning streak to 18 matches.
It wasn’t pretty—in fact, it was often hideous—but the ability to walk away from a scrap like this with three points is arguably more terrifying for the chasing pack than any 5-0 rout.
The War of Attrition
If you came for “The Beautiful Game,” you came to the wrong postcode. This fixture was defined by the referee’s whistle. A staggering 47 fouls were committed over the 90 minutes (24 by Chelsea, 23 by Spurs).
The game never found a rhythm because neither team allowed it. It was stop-start, niggly, and aggressive. Chelsea’s “Gegenpress” collided with Spurs’ “Vertical Tiki-Taka” in the midfield engine room, resulting in a chaotic stalemate where passing lanes were clogged and ankles were clipped.
Sahar’s Nerves of Steel
In a game devoid of flowing moves, it had to be a set-piece. In the 29th minute, Chelsea were awarded a penalty. After a tense VAR review confirmed the decision, Netanel Sahar stepped up.
The striker, whose form has been nothing short of sensational recently, ignored the jeers of the 62,000-strong crowd to bury the ball into the bottom corner. It was his only real contribution in a game where he was largely isolated, but it was the only one that mattered.
The Wall in Goal
While Sahar scored the winner, the three points belong to Hasitha Mohamed Risvi.
For the second big game in a row (after his heroics against Liverpool), the Sri Lankan goalkeeper was named Player of the Match with a 7.6 rating.
Tottenham generated an Expected Goals (xG) of 1.31, creating enough chances to snatch a draw. But Risvi made 4 crucial saves, denying Spurs whenever they managed to break through the forest of legs. He is quietly becoming one of the most important players in this streak.
18 Wins. Next: Man City.
Chelsea were far from their best. Luca D’Urso (6.5) and Joseph Haigh (6.6) struggled to impact the game, and the team pass completion rate dropped to 87% in the face of Spurs’ pressure.
But they won. Again.
That is 18 wins in a row. They sit top of the league, and they have just navigated a brutal derby without dropping points. The fixture list offers no respite, however.
Wednesday night sees Manchester City come to the Drogba Arena.