Premier League – Chelsea 2, Spurs 2

Published: 9 May, 2013
by DAN CARRIER

ANDRE Villas-Boas praised his team after they fought back twice last night (Wednesday) to earn a 2-2 draw at Chelsea in a match that was billed as a Champions League showdown.

“This was an example of our determination and ambition,” said the Spurs boss after the game.

The result means Spurs stay fifth behind Chelsea and Arsenal with just two games to go – but Villas-Boas said the race was far from over.

“We did very well to get a point in a difficult situation,” he added. “I am pleased with the performance but the reality is we have to do our job in the last two games and hope something happens in our favour elsewhere.”

In a furious game that was played at the pace of a cup final, Spurs blinked first. Chelsea's opener came on 10 minutes when Oscar flicked a header home from a corner. But despite a poor start, Spurs came back in spectacular fashion.

On 25 minutes, Emmanuel Adebayor – who Villas-Boas said was “magnificent all night” – led a charge from his own half and with the Blues defenders backing off, he strode forward to the edge of the box and curled a delightful ball over goalkeeper Petr Cech. Within 12 minutes, however, Chelsea were back in front thanks to a brilliant finish from Ramires, who toe-poked the ball home after being played in by Fernando Torres.

The second period saw chances at both ends and it took another moment of brilliant improvisation by Adebayor to bring Spurs level. His back-heeled flick into the path of Gylfi Sigurdsson gave the Icelandic substitute half-a-yard of space and he side footed home.

Villas-Boas called it “the game-of-the-season” afterwards – but now knows unless Arsenal or Chelsea drop points, the Champions League will have to wait for another season.

“It is not in our hands anymore,” he said. “We have to win our next fixture and hope some one elsewhere slips up. But today's performance shows how much we wanted to be in there – and we can just hope our efforts will be rewarded at the end of the season.”