Hoddle rues ‘chance missed’ to break Blues hoodoo

Tottenham 0 Chelsea 0

Spurs have failed to beat the Blues in 22 attempts since the Premier League was formed and the man who stood in their way yesterday was Chelsea goalkeeper Carlo Cudicini, who produced three brilliant saves to keep the scoresheet blank.

"The way we played in the second half, that was a chance missed," said Hoddle. "We started a bit slowly in the first half, but our momentum got better and better and I felt we should have won the game.

"We had a purple patch but couldn't get that elusive goal, and the performance of their goalkeeper was wonderful for them."

Chelsea manager Claudio Ranieri agreed his Italian stopper had been the difference after Cudidini denied Jamie Redknapp, Gus Poyet and Teddy Sheringham what looked certain goals.

He said: "In the first half we played better than Tottenham without having a serious shot at goal, and in the second half Tottenham stepped up a gear and put us under pressure, but I have a fantastic goalkeeper and he saved all the shots."

The one bleak note for Chelsea was a groin injury to last season's top scorer Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Ranieri is hoping it will not prove to be too serious.

Yet after all Spurs domination especially at the start of the second half it was Chelsea who could have snatched their familiar victory when Mario Melchiot's header from a Gianfranco Zola free-kick struck a post just before the hour mark.

Hasselbaink's in-and-out-form has enabled the veteran Zola to grab his opportunity again but the old master belied the clinical form that had brought him eight goals already this season when Melchiot slid him in behind the statuesque Dean Richards with just 12 minutes gone. The little Italian scuffed his shot across goal with only Kasey Keller to beat.

Keane missed a chance just as inviting for Spurs five minutes later when shrugging off Williams Gallas to attack Carr's cross from the right but making only minimal and unproductive contact from eight yards out.

And it required the save of the match from Cudicini on 25 minutes when Keane's short free-kick was flicked up by Redknapp so that the former Liverpool star could strike a fierce volley which the Chelsea keeper turned over the bar at full stretch.

Chelsea had another outstanding chance just before Hasselbaink's exit when Emmanuel Petit's long ball put Quique de Lucas away down the middle only for the Spaniard to skew his effort horribly wide as two defenders bore down on him.

It should have proved an expensive lapse by Chelsea as Spurs opened the second half with a real blitz. Keane headed over at the far post from Carr's marvellous run and cross. Then Gallas cleared off the line from Richards before Poyet's shot from eight yards bounced off the legs of Cudicini when it looked certain the Uruguayan would score against his former club.

And Cudicini reproduced his acrobatics of the first half to deny Sheringham with a flying leap after the wily old striker stealthily pulled away to the edge of the box to meet Redknapp's low, driven corner.

There were four red cards when these two teams met in a five-match mini-series last season but just four yellow ones this time as referee Rob Styles struggled to keep up with the pace in the last 20 minutes.

One of the cautions was for Keller who furiously kicked the ball away when Styles awarded Chelsea a contentious free-kick which was moved on 10 yards to the edge of the area for the keeper's dissent and then ballooned over the bar by Zola in a dreadful anti-climax.

Zola was out of luck again, stretching for Petit's long cross when left unattended at the far post but just failing to make contact.

It summed up an afternoon of near-misses but you sensed Chelsea were happier with the point than their hosts.

TOTTENHAM: Keller, Perry, Richards, Bunjevcevic, Carr, Freund, Redknapp, Poyet (Acimovic 73), Davies, Sheringham (Ferdinand 90), Keane.

CHELSEA: Cudicini, Melchiot, Gallas, Desailly, Babayaro, Morris, Lampard, Petit, De Lucas (Oliveira 88), Hasselbaink (Gudjohnsen 44), Zola.

Referee: R Styles (Hampshire).