Chelsea climbed into the Premier League top-six as Thomas Tuchel earned the first major victory of his short time in charge of the Blues with a 1-0 win at Tottenham on Thursday.
Jorginho’s penalty midway through the first-half was scant reward for Chelsea’s dominance on another damaging night for Spurs boss Jose Mourinho against his former club.
“We are super happy about the result. It was a tough game against a strong opponent, but we did very well and controlled the game well,” said Tuchel, who has taken seven points from three games in his first eight days in charge.
“It’s not about my methods. I’m happy with the attitude, the squad, the potential. It’s a nice group and they are open. It’s a pleasure to be around them. We have a lot of support in the whole club. It was a quick start, but an easy one because I feel very welcome.”
Since a 2-0 victory over Arsenal in early December took Tottenham top of the table, it has won just twice in its last 10 league games to not only see hopes of a first league title in 60 years disappear, but the chances of even making the top-four rapidly recede.
For the first time in Jose Mourinho’s managerial career, he has lost back-to-back home league games.
Tottenham is now eighth, seven points off the Champions League places, and behind Chelsea, which saw fit to make a managerial change last week after a drastic dip in form under Frank Lampard.
A run of 13 points from 12 games is also worse than the slow start to last season that saw Mauricio Pochettino sacked as Spurs boss, 12 matches into the campaign.
Tottenham’s defensive resolve was undone in the 24th minute when Eric Dier unnecessarily swept away Timo Werner’s legs from under him inside the box. Jorginho had missed three penalties already this season, but cut out his usual stutter-step run-up and smashed the ball low past Hugo Lloris.
The result:
Tottenham 0 lost to Chelsea 1 (Jorginho 24-pen).
