The 3rd best game of last years season was Chelsea 2-2 Tottenham. This game was crucial to both teams Champions League hopes, with Chelsea needing a win to secure a qualification, and Spurs needing a win or a draw to stay in the race.
Build Up:
Chelsea were coming off a streak of 5 wins from 7 played, including a 1-0 win over Manchester United just days before. As said above, the Blues only needed a win to secure qualification. At this point, with just 3 games left in the season, the race for the spots was really heating up. Tottenham had won two straight games, starting with a 3-1 win over City to keep them in the race. Gareth Bale had been in prime form all season, winning the PFA Player of the Year, Young Player of the Year and FWA Player of the Year awards; the only other player to win all three of those awards in the same season was Cristiano Ronaldo, to whom Bale has often been compared.
The Game:
The opening chance of the game came in the 7th minute, when Juan Mata hit a curling half volley just over the bar. The Spainard delivered a fantastic corner that Gary Cahill caught a hold of in the middle of the box; the English defender headed the ball down towards the far post, where Oscar redirected it with his head back into the net. Spurs equalized 15 minutes later, when Emmanuel Adebayor led a counter, taking the ball all the way to the edge of the box, before hitting a high shot over Petr Cech. The shot looked like it would go over the bar the whole way, until just at the end, it dipped under the bar and into the upper corner. It was a fantastic goal, worthy of the sporadic but brilliant goal's Spurs had been scoring in the season. Chelsea pulled in front again 15 minutes later, when Fernando Torres picked the ball up on the right wing, in tight space, and took several touches; he then played a through ball between two Spurs defenders, which Ramires hit, curling and fast, past Hugo Lloris, falling as he did it. So Spurs went into halftime needing a goal or two to stay in the UCL race.
Chelsea continued to look good in the second half, with Cesar Azpilicueta looking to cross to Juan Mata at the back post, but in the end almost scoring; the ball barely soared wide and high as Hugo Lloris stretched for it. Eden Hazard's beautiful touch on to set Mata on a break created another great Blues chance; the Spanish midfielder got to the box, and passed to a wide open, speeding Ramires; it was a clear goal, a game cincher for the Blues, but, just as the ball reached him, the Brazilian slipped, banging his head on the pitch. That missed opportunity proved fatal for the Blues, as, in the 80th minute, Emmanuel Adebayor touched a Benoit Assou-Ekotto cross back to Gylfi Sigurdsson, and the Icelander curled the low shot past Cech to equalize. Replays showed the Adebayor was close to being offside, and debate would rage for a day, but the goal stood, and that was that.
Aftermath:
Although some Chelsea fans may have been dismayed at the draw, there was nothing in the end to be worried about. The Blues had an extra game on Arsenal and Tottenham, and in the end finished with ease in a UCL spot. Tottenham, however, stayed close with Arsenal until the last day, when they needed an Arsenal loss; their wishes were not fulfilled, however, and they were denied Champions League play again.
Stay tuned for the rest of Pitch View's countdown to the Premier League season.
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