Tottenham vs Chelsea match report: Diego Costa dropped as London derby ends in stalemate

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Harry Kane is foiled by Chelsea goalkeeper Asmir Begovic and defender Gary Cahill (Getty Images )

If Jose Mourinho had known that Diego Costa came close to throwing a pink bib on the top of his head at the end, then we might have witnessed another conflagration between them, followed by retrospective talk from the manager about their “kiss and cuddles” of a week ago. But Mourinho wasn’t looking over his shoulder when the garment was thrown and, in keeping with the course of his last three months, the striker missed.

The act of insurrection occurred when 19-year-old Ruben Loftus-Cheek stepped off the substitutes’ bench and on to the field instead of Costa and was a baffling action from the Spaniard given that the game was over – 91 minutes old – at that stage. Though Chelsea will look upon that moment – and the goalless draw – as a disaster avoided, it spoke for the fairly desolate place Mourinho finds himself in this morning.

As the dust clears on the wreckage of Chelsea’s autumn, he finds himself trying to locate some quality and enchantment in his only recognised striker, unsure whether dropping him will have made the slightest difference.

The search may last a while, given that Costa arrived without boots to take up his place on the bench and was then absent from either the warm-up or warm-down. Mourinho, needless to say, declared himself oblivious to any such facts. His observation that Costa was “privileged’ to have avoided demotion until now, when most of the others have already faced it, belongs to that well-worn strategy of talking to a player through his press conferences. He does not really know whether it will work on a player who had scored 11 goals by this time last season and was igniting every game.

In the meantime, it was Eden Hazard filling the Costa boots yesterday and though he played with the energy of a player who has by no means given up on his club and his manager, it was no way for the side who call themselves champions to go about their business. This was Chelsea, the team whose manager – Mourinho, first time round – raged against Martin Jol’s Spurs for “parking the bus” on their ground 11 years ago. Yesterday, they were the ones reduced to the survival strategy. It was written across the pitch from the first minutes, in Chelsea’s deep-lying line and the stationing of Nemanja Matic as a virtual centre-half at times. Classic Mourinho pragmatism.

He looked very happy with it all. Someone threw a drink bottle in his direction near the end – an accidentally aimed missile, this time – and his broad grin said a lot. Four games undefeated, three successive clean sheets for the first time this season and a first clean sheet away from Stamford Bridge all represent progress in the new world this club occupies. They all allow a manager to pronounce that the bottle is half full.

Mourinho spoke afterwards about “the feeling of ‘the team’” and said he can begin to look to December and beyond with confidence. “At the end of the season our feeling will be a different feeling.” But the most that can be said of Chelsea is that the ship is no longer listing. Their manager seems to have engaged with the idea that his histrionics were sending his side into freefall and leaving his players embarrassed and perplexed. We are perhaps witnessing Mourinho entering a becalmed period, hoping quietly to find a way back. His players will give thanks for that.

He is right about December. It brings Bournemouth, Sunderland and Watford to Stamford Bridge – fixtures which do suggest that the top 10 beckons for a side still 14 points adrift of Tottenham. Mourinho will also have more of the cavalry – John Terry, Ramires, Thibaut Courtois – ready for Bournemouth on Saturday. But there is no way to dress up how barren this performance was. They had only a couple of Hazard chances, a deflected Pedro strike and an Oscar shot into the side-netting to show for their trouble. You wonder where it is all heading when the club have exited their emergency mode and their proprietor is looking for something more ambitious.

Chelsea's Pedro shows his frustration (Getty Images)

Individually, theirs was a very mixed bag of performances, too: Cesc Fabregas is still looking for what he brought last season and Willian profligate in possession. Oscar buzzed around and Pedro looked one of the few undamaged by what the autumn has brought. The side cannot advance meaningfully without a striker.

It is a sign of how far Tottenham have travelled that they could consider it an opportunity lost. They have created a piece of history with this result, having gone 13 games unbeaten for the first time since November 1984 to March 1985. The only questionable aspect of this period has been their seven draws in 14, though Mauricio Pochettino did not quite understand why that point was being made, with his side fifth.

Mousa Dembélé and Harry Kane aside, they looked as mentally drained from a midweek Europa League trip to Azerbaijan as Pochettino had suspected. Christian Eriksen could not find his own usual high standards and the stand-out opportunity came and went when Son Heung-min headed into Asmir Begovic’s arms from Kane’s cross.

Pochettino steadfastly refused to be lured into title talk, though he plainly possesses much that the champions lack. That includes the growing central defensive confidence of Toby Alderweireld, whose immaculately timed tackle when a neat one-two between Pedro and Willian sent the Spaniard through early in the game was one of several interventions. Kane, strong in the way he dropped to help midfield, provides a consistency of input way beyond Chelsea’s current hopes for Costa.

Pochettino made one of those comments about Chelsea at the end which would have been the game’s controversy if the marginalising of Costa had not so dominated the narrative. “You got the feeling that Chelsea were a small team, and Tottenham can win every game we play,” he said. “Not easy. We’re the youngest team in the Premier League.” On all counts, he was right.