Chelsea look to stay the distance

English FA Premiership/ Tottenham Hotspur 0; Chelsea 1: For Chelsea, if only for the moment, Arsenal are no longer a cloud of dust on the horizon. The Easter programme will decide whether this is merely a trick of the light and that may depend on what happens when the teams meet at Highbury tomorrow evening in the return leg of their Champions League quarter-final.

At least Chelsea know they can win when Arsenal lose. Should this become a habit during the run-in then Roman Abramovich, Chelsea's Russian owner, and his hired hand, Peter Kenyon, will be the only men on earth who feel Claudio Ranieri should be replaced as manager at the end of the season.

The victory at White Hart Lane on Saturday, secured by Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink's usual goal against Tottenham and assisted by the referee's myopia, has taken Chelsea to within four points of the Premiership leaders.

Arsenal can re-establish their seven-point advantage against Liverpool on Good Friday and again on Easter Sunday when they visit Newcastle United, always assuming Chelsea have beaten Middlesbrough in between.

But who knows? Chelsea may be in a position to increase the pressure still further when they go to Villa Park a week today.

Certainly Saturday's performance provided the perfect template for what Chelsea will need to do against Arsenal tomorrow: half an hour of tight-laced football, giving little away, then a well-worked goal followed by some sublime passing movements and, at the last, more composed defending to deny Tottenham a late equaliser.

Of course, Arsenal and Spurs are rather more than four miles apart in terms of ability, and Marco Ambrosio can expect a busier time in goal for Chelsea at Highbury than he experienced at White Hart Lane. Tottenham's only goal in their last five games has been scored by an opponent, Newcastle's Andy O'Brien, and the lack of confidence in their finishing was obvious.

Chelsea's Frank Lampard was again a master of the craft of midfield play, the more so once his elbow had accidentally gashed Jamie Redknapp's lip, sending his relative to hospital.

Spurs might have been in a more serious hunt for victory had the referee, Steve Bennett, spotted John Terry blocking a shot from Michael Brown with a wrist. "We had a certain penalty," said David Pleat, the Tottenham caretaker manager.

Referees can only give what they see and if Bennett had seen Taricco catching Damien Duff and Scott Parker in the face with, respectively, a hand and a forearm it is doubtful whether the Argentinian defender would have remained on the field long enough to be cautioned for bringing down Hasselbaink as the Chelsea striker was about to break clear.

Taricco could have collected a prial of red cards by the time he gave way to Stephen Kelly on the hour. Pleat's gallant plea of mitigation that the short-fused left-back was easily goaded could not hide the fact that the Argentinian too often reflects the dark side of his country's football, in sharp contrast to Tottenham's Osvaldo Ardiles who was one of its shining lights.

Taricco even disproved Pleat's belief that Chelsea's winning goal could have been disallowed for offside. True, Duff was in an offside position when Lampard gathered a ball from Wayne Bridge and began to exchange passes with Eidur Gudjohnsen, but Taricco was keeping Duff onside when Lampard's excellent through-pass gave him the chance to cross low for Hasselbaink to score for the 13th time in 16 appearances against Spurs.

While Tottenham created more opportunities than their opponents these were usually of the fleeting kind, such as the hard-driven centre from Christian Ziege just before half-time that might have been turned in by Jermain Defoe had Terry not deflected the ball out of the striker's reach. Ambrosio's alertness and agility kept out a late header from Anthony Gardner and in stoppage time Robbie Keane wafted Spurs' last chance over the bar.

If Chelsea can bring to their remaining home games the levels of concentration that have given them the best away record in the Premier League, then Amberleigh House may not be alone this spring in achieving a famous triumph over the last few strides. But it still needs Arsenal to do a Devon Loch as well.

Guardian Service