Chelsea vs Tottenham LIVE: Result and reaction as Fernandez inspires crucial derby win for Blues in Premier League
Chelsea 1-0 Tottenham: Fernandez leapt to meet a wonderful Cole Palmer cross to head home
Enzo Fernandez’s second-half header proved the difference as Chelsea edged out Tottenham in a crucial win for their Champions League hopes.
The first half was bookended by two major Chelsea chances, with Nicolas Jackson hitting the post in the first minute before Guglielmo Vicario produced a sublime save to deny Jadon Sancho on the brink of the interval.
An unmarked Fernandez met a delicious Cole Palmer cross to put the Blues in front after the restart, before Moises Caicedo appeared to double Chelsea’s lead with a super volley, only for the strike to be ruled out for offside.
Tottenham were later denied by VAR themselves as Pape Matar Sarr fired in from range, only to be adjudged to have fouled Caicedo in the build-up.
That reprieve was enough for Chelsea to hold on, securing the points and propelling them back into the top four.
Follow all the latest build-up and team news from Stamford Bridge below:
How the race for Champions League stands
Chelsea leapt back into the top four with victory over Spurs tonight.
It leaves them a point above Manchester City in fifth - a position which is expected to also secure Champions League qualification this season.
Then sit Newcastle in sixth, two points behind the Blues but with a game in hand. Aston Villa and Brighton are within five points in seventh and eighth.
A couple results go awry and Chelsea’s hopes of competing in Europe’s premier competition next term could go up in smoke. They need to be all but flawless for the remaining eight games.
Ange Postecoglou insists cupping of ears towards fans was misinterpreted
Ange Postecoglou cupped his ears towards Tottenham fans after Pape Matar Sarr thought he had equalised. The manager’s decision to bring Sarr on for Bergvall was previously booed.
"Oh, jeez mate,” he said. “It is incredible, we just scored, I wanted to hear them cheer, I wanted them to get excited, I wanted to win the game with the momentum, it wasn't the first time my substitution was booed.”
Enzo Maresca gives post-match thoughts
"Overall, I think it was a very good performance, I think we deserved to win the game we created enough chances already in the first half to score,” Maresca told Sky Sports. “In the last 10 minutes I think the team showed effort, togetherness, spirit and it's something that we need.
"If you measure on the result then for sure if we achieve Champions League is an important thing but from my point of view, I try to see how we improve day by day and I can see, since the first day, I think the team is getting better and better."
Ange Postecoglou blasts VAR: 'It's killing the game'
"It's killing the game mate, it's not the same game it used to be,” Postecoglou told Sky Sports. “We all sat on our couches last night and watched TV [when Everton's James Tarkowski was not sent off for a high challenge on Liverpool's Alexis Mac Allister] and I guarantee you if Jarred Gillett was VAR last night it would've been a different outcome so you just don't know what we're going to get.
"You are standing around for 12 minutes. It's just killing the game, but no-one cares about that, they just love the drama and controversy and I'm sure there will be 24 hours discussion about it and that's what everyone wants - they're not really interested that it's killing the spectacle of the game.
"If a referee sees that and he needs to see it for six minutes, what's clear and obvious about it?”
Report: Tottenham’s latest farcical display at Chelsea can only mean one thing for Ange Postecoglou
Somehow, a match-week that started with Chelsea selling a football team to themselves ends with an even greater level of farce.
Ange Postecoglou has suffered defeats of a far more humiliating scale than this mere 1-0 loss at Stamford Bridge, but his ill-advised decision to gloatingly cup his ear after a disallowed goal just made this much worse.
It’s hard not to think that will serve as an epitaph for the Australian’s end in this job. He certainly can’t hear the fans backing him any more.
Spurs’s latest farcical display at Chelsea can only mean one thing for Postecoglou
Chelsea seal crucial win over Spurs in hunt for Champions League
FULL-TIME! Chelsea 1-0 Tottenham
Chelsea get over the line!
Enzo Fernandez’s header proves the difference as the Blues secure a crucial derby win.
Moises Caicedo and Papa Matar Sarr both had goals disallowed in a frantic second half, but in the end it was Chelsea who took home all the points.
Chelsea 1-0 Tottenham
90+12 mins: One last lump forward for Spurs... and they’ve given it away before even getting into the final third!
Madueke is fouled in the break and Spence is booked.
That should be it.
Chelsea 1-0 Tottenham
90+10 mins: Another wasted corner from Spurs as it’s cleared by a Chelsea head.
The Blues now have a free-kick deep in their half, which Sanchez is going to lump forward.
Chelsea 1-0 Tottenham
90+8 mins: Porro is enraged with the linesman for not awarding a corner as his attempted cross ricocheted off Dewsbury-Hall.
He does have a point - that is an obvious corner - but you can’t scream in the official’s face like that, and he is given a yellow for his troubles.
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