Ten-man Chelsea stunned by Spurs

Ten-man Chelsea’s lead at the top of the English Premier League was cut to just one point after they were beaten 2-1 away to London rivals Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane here on Saturday.

Goals from Jermain Defoe and Gareth Bale allowed second-placed champions Manchester United, who had won 1-0 at Manchester City earlier in the day, to close the gap with three games now remaining for both sides.

Chelsea captain John Terry conceded a penalty and was sent off while striker Didier Drogba played the entire second half seemingly injured.

The win moved Tottenham into fourth place ahead of City, their rivals for a place in the Champions League, with the two teams due to meet each other in Manchester next month.

It was Spurs’s second big win of the week after they beat Arsenal by the same scoreline in Wednesday’s north London derby.

Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti started with Drogba as the only out-and-out forward, dropping Nicolas Anelka to the bench despite his winner against Bolton on Tuesday.

Michael Ballack and Salomon Kalou suffered a similar fate as Deco, Joe Cole and Florent Malouda returned.

Tottenham began impressively but had goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes to thank in the seventh minute when he tipped a Malouda drive round a post.

Spurs continued to attack and, after referee Phil Dowd ignored two strong penalty appeals, they were awarded a spot-kick in the 15th minute.

Indeed, the one Dowd did award seemed less clear-cut than the other two as Terry tried to block following a corner. The ball appeared to hit the Chelsea captain on a shoulder rather than an arm but Dowd pointed to the spot.

It was similar to an incident against Bolton Wanderers that had gone Terry’s way in Chelsea’s 1-0 midweek win but luck was not with the England defender on this occasion.

Defoe made no mistake to give Tottenham a deserved lead and it was not long before Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech had to make a fine save to deny Roman Pavlyuchenko on the turn.

Chelsea were forced into a change in midfield as John Obi Mikel limped off in the 33rd minute to be replaced by Ballack.

Malouda thought he had equalised seven minutes before the break but his smart finish from Yuri Zhirkov’s pass was ruled out for offside.

Bale, who also scored against Arsenal then made it 2-0 a minute before the break with a superb solo effort.

First the Wales international turned Paulo Ferrera to reach the edge of the box before beating Cech at his near post with his right foot.

Chelsea almost conjured up an instant reply from Frank Lampard only for Gomes to beat away his volley.

Ancelotti decided to go for broke at the break by sending Anelka and Branislav Ivanovich on for Ferreira and Joe Cole.

He regretted it instantly when Drogba pulled up before the whistle had gone but the striker was able to continue.

Cech kept his side in the game by denying Defoe after Pavlyuchenko had put the England forward clear shortly after the restart.

Tottenham continued to look the side more likely to score and Cech had to make a save at his near post to deny Pavlyuchenko.

Then Terry was booked twice in the space of three minutes, first for fouling Pavlyuchenko and then Bale, to leave Chelsea a man down in the 67th minute.

Chelsea had Cech to thank once again when he reacted in time to tip David Bentley’s clever chip over the bar.

Ivanovic came close to pulling one back late on but Gomes was able to tip over his dipping effort.

Bale might have made it 3-0 but again Cech saved and the Welshman rolled another chance just wide late on.

Lampard pulled one back in stoppage time, converting a Ballack cross, but it was too late for Chelsea, with Pavlyuchenko missing a simple chance straight after to make it 3-1 to Spurs.