Chelsea 3 Tottenham Hotspur 3: Mourinho conjures comeback after Lennon bewitches Blues

Roman Abramovich in one stand, David Beckham in the other, and in between them, a football match that was enough to remind every billionaire and multi-millionaire in the place that you cannot put a price on a great FA Cup tie. The sun shines every day in Los Angeles but the former England captain will rarely see the Home Depot Center illuminated by a game of so many twists and such unfailing intensity as Stamford Bridge was yesterday.

Neither of these teams has any room to spare in a fixture calendar choked by European football but that did not mean that either wanted out of the FA Cup. As Jose Mourinho ushered his team forward in pursuit of an equaliser, he was only heaping more fixture pain on to his club. But what the hell, he has never won the FA Cup and if he leaves this summer he never might. Martin Jol's team played in the Premiership's game of the season last week at West Ham and this time it was Spurs who could not stand in the way of an irresistible comeback.

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Pretty much the only English manager who could not claim to have enjoyed this game will be Steve McClaren, who now loses potentially 16 of his Chelsea, Tottenham, Middlesbrough and Manchester United England players to replays on Monday in the build-up to the Israel game on 24 March.

This was the FA Cup at its best, footballers tired from a long season, and with concerns in other competitions, suddenly gripped by the imperative of staying in the Cup.

Where did that come from? It was started by Tottenham, whose fearsome start to the game is not what they are accustomed to at Stamford Bridge, where Chelsea had never conceded three goals under Mourinho. When Salomon Kalou (below) smacked in the equaliser on 86 minutes we had witnessed six goals, four different Mourinho formations, nine bookings and one tunnel dust-up. Jol's team had taken Chelsea the distance, but finishing them off is another matter altogether.

The game's outstanding performer in the early stages was Aaron Lennon who, playing in an unorthodox position behind the strikers, was a revelation. McClaren has not yet been able to play this brilliant young winger and the Spurs man gave Beckham plenty of reasons to believe he has a true successor on the right side of the England team. This was also a Chelsea side without the calming influence of Claude Makelele and Tottenham exploited the space in front of their opponents' defence.

Sat two seats from Beckham in the stand was John Terry, whose absence continues to undermine Chelsea. Khalid Boulahrouz is so far out of favour that Mourinho prefers his old warrior Michael Essien as a converted centre-half and yesterday he was exposed. The first goal on five minutes followed Lennon's ball into Dimitar Berbatov and Essien neither played him offside nor got in a tackle to stop the Bulgarian slipping his shot home.

It is hard to blame Essien when he is asked to play in both full-back positions and central defence in the space of one match. His own goal on 28 minutes, from Lennon's cross from the right, was a careless lunge at a ball that Petr Cech had covered. That was the second time Tottenham took the lead after Frank Lampard's equaliser on 22 minutes, a close-range prod turned in from Michael Ballack's shot from the left.

This was not the German's worst game for Chelsea but when they fell 3-1 behind on 36 minutes it was Ballack who was the target for some of the disgruntled home fans around the dug-outs. Tottenham's third goal was a slap for Mourinho's tactical innovation - he took off Paulo Ferreira after just 34 minutes - and shortly afterwards Hossam Ghaly added a brilliant third.

The Egyptian has looked little better than many of the legion of players shipped in and out of Tottenham in the last two years but he took his chance well, chesting the ball down past three Chelsea players and slotting in. Mourinho was playing with three at the back and it still was not half-time.

It is at times like these that you have to wonder at the spirit of the side Mourinho has created at Chelsea while he simultaneously demonstrates some of the most ruthless management decisions in memory. He barely glanced at Ferreira as the full-back trudged off to be replaced by Shaun Wright-Phillips and his team changed again to go after the tie. This was one of the few games where the half-time tunnel row took second place to the battle on the pitch.

The game was Tottenham's to win in the 52nd minute when Lennon broke on to Didier Zokora's ball and, with just Cech to beat, hit his shot straight at the Chelsea goalkeeper. The England man is a precious talent but if that one had fallen to Berbatov you would have expected the tie to have been decided. In the end it was Jol's substitutions that played into the hands of Chelsea.

In the closing stages the Tottenham manager invited Mourinho's team to attack. He said he had to take off Berbatov because the striker was injured, but the reasons for taking off Lennon seemed less clear.

Mourinho switched back to four in defence with Lassana Diarra at right-back and, in the 71st minute, Chelsea caused enough of a commotion in the area from Ballack's header at a corner for Lampard to drive in the second.

Mourinho substituted both his full-backs, even bringing on Boulahrouz to allow his side to switch back to three at the back for the second time in the match, in a complete commitment to attack in the final stages. Kalou, Drogba, Wright-Phillips, Andrei Shevchenko and Arjen Robben were all on for one last tilt at the equaliser. Kalou took his volley beautifully four minutes from time from Drogba's knockdown.

It would have been a fitting end, if indeed that had been the end. Jermain Defoe smashed one against the crossbar a minute later and Shevchenko volleyed over. On the touchline Mourinho threw his water bottle on the ground in anger at another Mike Riley decision and, as the referee walked off, was clearly shouting "It's over, it's over" at the official. It certainly isn't. They do it all over again a week today.

Goals: Berbatov (5) 0-1; Lampard (22) 1-1; Essien og (28) 1-2; Ghaly (36) 1-3; Lampard (71) 2-3; Kalou (86) 3-3.

Chelsea (4-1-3-2): Cech; Ferreira (Wright-Phillips, 34), Carvalho, Essien, A Cole (Kalou, 64); Diarra (Boulahrouz, 57); Lampard, Ballack, Robben; Drogba, Shevchenko. Substitutes not used: Cudicini (gk), Bridge.

Tottenham Hotspur (4-3-1-2): Cerny; Stalteri, Dawson, Rocha, Lee; Ghaly (Gardner, 81), Zokora, Tainio; Lennon (Malbranque, 77); Defoe, Berbatov (Mido, 66). Substitutes not used: Burch (gk), Huddlestone.

Booked: Chelsea Diarra, Carvalho, A Cole, Kalou; Tottenham Ghaly, Zokora, Stalteri, Lee, Cerny.

Referee: M Riley (West Yorkshire).

Man of the match: Lennon.

Attendance: 41,517.