It was a very good day for Spurs. And a very bad one for Chelsea. The champions were reduced to wreckage, their title defence destroyed and a top-four place, and qualification for the Champions League, appearing beyond them thanks to self-inflicted wounds from poor defending.
Having pulled away from Arsenal, Spurs are now eight points clear of Chelsea with just seven games to play. Mind the gap, as they say in London, where Spurs are undeniably the capital’s top team and Chelsea are left to reflect and rebuild yet again, with manager Antonio Conte expected to depart at the end of the season and the club once more no longer having a seat at Europe’s top table.
Remarkably, this was a fifth defeat in seven league matches for Chelsea, a truly astonishing statistic, as they have slid desperately down the league at the business end of the season. There is still an FA Cup semi-final but that does not feel like much of a prize for a team with their ambitions. They were eventually comprehensively outplayed here.
