Spurs finally win at Stamford Bridge again

Stamford Bridge has not been kind to Tottenham Hotspur in the league. Before this one, Spurs had managed just a single league win there in 36 years, a statistic that tells you everything about how this fixture usually goes regardless of form on either side. Thomas Frank's side arrived in west London sitting 16th in the Premier League table, with one win, three draws and three defeats from their first seven games and a goal difference of minus four, hardly the profile of a team about to make history on enemy territory.

According to Capital Sports, the breakthrough came from Mathys Tel, whose goal gave Tottenham the lead and, as it turned out, the only one they would need. Capital Sports also reports that Chelsea were then reduced to ten men, and the numerical disadvantage proved decisive. A home side with a spare man usually finds a way through against a struggling visitor. Chelsea, missing that extra body, could not.

A red card that changed everything

Few details of the sending-off have filtered through yet beyond Capital Sports' account, but the consequence was clear enough on the pitch. Chelsea had their moments and their chances, but a man light for a significant stretch of the game, they were unable to turn pressure into goals. Spurs, for all their own struggles this season, defended the lead they had and left Stamford Bridge with three points that will matter far beyond the historical footnote attached to them.

Why this one means more than three points

Tottenham's league position makes this victory, as reported by Capital Sports, feel almost incongruous. A side with three defeats already in seven matches does not often turn up at a rival's home ground and end a 36-year run of futility. But that is exactly the gap between reputation and reality that makes this result worth dwelling on: a struggling Spurs side did something their stronger vintages mostly couldn't.

For Chelsea, the frustration will sit less with the scoreline than with the manner of it. A red card against a mid-table visitor, on their own ground, is the kind of self-inflicted wound that turns a winnable afternoon into a damaging one. Stamford Bridge was supposed to be the one place Tottenham could be relied upon to leave empty-handed. Not this time.