Chelsea enjoyed a double dose of outrageous fortune to keep their slim
Barclays Premier League title hopes alive as two critical blunders by
the assistant referees saw them beat Tottenham 2-1.
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The champions closed to within three points of Manchester United ahead
of the leaders' trip to Arsenal thanks to goals from Frank Lampard and
Salomon Kalou that should never have been given.
Spurs were on course for their first victory at Stamford Bridge for 21
years after a spectacular first goal for the club from Sandro.
But goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes added another entry to his ever-increasing
catalogue of howlers when he spilt Lampard's 35-yard strike, with
assistant Mike Cairns wrongly ruling it had crossed the line.
The visitors, who needed to win to stay in the hunt for a top-four spot,
looked like holding on for a draw that was no good to either side until
substitute Kalou fired home in the 89th minute from an offside
position, with Martin Yerby failing to raise his flag.
The watching Sir Alex Ferguson would not have been amused about the
champions being gifted the most controversial of victories that put the
pressure back on his United side.
The big question before the game was whether Carlo Ancelotti would put
Chelsea's title hopes at risk by pairing Fernando Torres and Didier
Drogba in attack.
Despite his last gamble of starting Torres in the Champions League
defeat to United backfiring spectacularly, Ancelotti took a chance
again.
He did play it safe with the system, retaining the 4-3-3 that had been
key to the Blues still being in the championship reckoning.
But that meant Drogba playing on the right, a move that produced mixed
results.
Torres' long-awaited first goal for the club had an obvious effect on
the Spaniard's confidence but he never really had a sniff in the first
half.
Drogba was also more subdued than of late but he almost opened the
scoring with a blockbuster 35-yard free-kick that crashed off the
crossbar.
Michael Essien - declared fit despite hobbling off against West Ham last
week - and the in-form Florent Malouda also went close.
Otherwise, Spurs belied their recent form of one win in 10 and their
miserable record at Stamford Bridge to give as good as they got, Roman
Pavlyuchenko dragging wide after a Branislav Ivanovic slip.
But no one could have predicted the manner or scorer of their opening
goal.
Sandro was bought as a defensive midfielder but there was nothing
defensive about the touch and 30-yard half-volley that thundered through
the fingertips of Petr Cech after 19 minutes.
The Brazilian instinctively ran to manager Harry Redknapp to celebrate
only to receive a a monumental telling off.
Chelsea piled on the pressure, going too far at times, with Ivanovic
booked and captain John Terry lucky to escape yellow on his 500th
appearance for the club.
They should have levelled when Gomes tipped over Essien's header and the
resulting corner saw Drogba flick the ball on for Torres, who stooped
to nod over when he should have used his foot.
Sandro produced an excellent tackle on Lampard to deny him what looked a
certain equaliser before all Tottenham's good work was undone on the
stroke of half-time by Gomes' latest howler and an even bigger blunder
by Cairns.
Gomes took no chances after the break when he parried a 25-yard shot
from Drogba, who was then booked for foolishly refusing to give the ball
to the referee.
With just under half and hour for his side to rescue his title bid,
Ancelotti finally abandoned the Torres-Drogba experiment and restored
Kalou to his attack.
Kalou's first touch was almost a goal as another Gomes blunder saw him
punch Drogba's 40-yard free-kick straight at the striker, who had no
time to react.
Chelsea screamed for a penalty when Younes Kaboul brought down Malouda
but replays showed the tackle was clean.
The home side's attacks became increasingly frantic, while there was
always the danger of being hit on the break.
Terry scuffed a disguised Drogba free-kick straight at Gomes before
Chelsea's pressure finally told, with Drogba's shot deflecting to to
Kalou to stab home.
Spurs pushed in vain for an equaliser and Gomes understandably had words
with referee Andre Marriner as the players left the field.
Source: DSG