Terry and Torres get Blues firing

PREMIER LEAGUE:

Mourinho spent most of the pre-match build up to Saturday’s London derby at White Hart Lane telling everyone that Tottenham are title contenders; and there were enough signs during a passionate 1-1 draw to suggest he is right.

But, although Torres’ controversial red card stole the headlines , perhaps the key point of learning from a frantic 90 minutes of action — and the most worrying for United boss David Moyes as he attempts to rescue his champions from capsizing in mid-table — was that despite a shaky start to the season Chelsea are slowly maturing into title contenders.

Chelsea have had their problems since Mourinho returned, not least a Champions League home defeat by Basel that makes tomorrow’s trip to Bucharest vitally important, but he hailed the second 45 minutes at the Lane as the best so far — a period in which Chelsea dominated almost every facet of play as they recovered from a first-half goal from Gylfi Sigurdsson to equalise through a Terry header.

The game’s talking point came after 81 minutes when Torres, fortunate to stay on the pitch when he appeared to claw the face of Jan Vertonghen, was then harshly given a second yellow for jumping into an aerial challenge with the same player. Referee Mike Dean, fooled by the way Vertonghen clutched his head despite no contact whatsoever with Torres’ leading arm, sent the Chelsea man off — a huge blow for the visitors considering the striker had been enjoying possibly his best performance in years and the Blues were in the ascendence.

The fall out will no doubt be painful. Mourinho was vicious, for instance, in his criticism of Vertonghen; and it could get even more messy if The FA, as they are entitled to do, view footage of Torres’ earlier ‘clawing’ misdemeanour and decide it worthy of extra punishment. But of more long-term relevance was the explosive all-round performance of Torres — and an equally impressive display by Terry, who only last season was overlooked by Rafa Benitez and seemed destined to be eased into early retirement.

Terry not only headed Chelsea’s equaliser — following a free-kick by Juan Mata, cleverly introduced at half-time by Mourinho to great effect before confirming the Spaniard will definitely start in Romania tomorrow — but has barely put a foot wrong after persuading The Special One he is too good to be discarded.

“He has a future,” insisted Mourinho. “The way he is playing he has a future here, he has a future where he wants.”

Torres, another who was rumoured to be leaving, has also impressed. “He’s very strong; physically I think he’s living a very good moment,” said Mourinho. “From television I was watching Fernando’s matches for Chelsea in other seasons and he looked to me, a bit heavy, a little slow. I think now Fernando looks in fantastic shape. The fact he knows I like the player and that I trust the player, I think for a player is important. In his head he knows even if I drop him and sometimes I leave him out, I’m trying to do the best thing for him and the best thing for the team. So he’s not under the pressure he was probably under in other years.”

Weekend results, which also saw City lose at Aston Villa, leave London with a one-two-three in the table, Chelsea tucked in behind Arsenal and Spurs — and United way adrift; so there is plenty of encouragement for Tottenham too in the title race.

“They’re a very good team and they’ve spent over £100million and they’re going to be looking at winning the league,” said Frank Lampard. “That’s what you have to do when you spend that money. We’ve lived for the last eight years with that pressure, and that’s what Tottenham have to deal with.”

That’s the kind of gamesmanship Spurs will be facing if they want to stay in the hunt in this most unpredictable of seasons; and the signs for Andre Villas-Boas, up against a former mentor and now estranged friend in the shape of Mourinho at the weekend, are good. His team is not only skilful but also strong — there is certainly no lack of height or fight in the Spurs line-up.

“I think we are a match for anyone on our day and you saw that in the first half especially,” said winger Andros Townsend. “We have good squad depth so we will be there or thereabouts at the end of the season.”

Chelsea, though, will be the ones City and United are really worried about; and you suspect this year there won’t be so much blue sea between them.

SPURS: Lloris 7, Walker 6, Dawson 6, Vertonghen 6, Naughton 6, Paulinho 7, Dembele 8, Townsend 7 (Chadli 62; 5), Eriksen 7 (Holtby 69; 5), Sigurdsson 6, Soldado 6 (Defoe 76; 6).

CHELSEA: Cech 6, Ivanovic 7, Luiz 7, Terry 8, Cole 6, Ramires 7, Mikel 6 (Mata 46; 7), Lampard 6, Oscar 6 (Azpilicueta 81), Torres 8, Hazard 7 (Schrrle 69).

Referee: Mike Dean (Wirral).