Our 3️⃣ points as Chelsea revive European bid against subpar Tottenham | OneFootball

Chelsea proved too strong for Tottenham in Thursday’s London derby, with goals from Trevoh Chalobah and Nicolas Jackson ensuring they ran out 2-0 winners at Stamford Bridge.

Here’s what we made of events at Stamford Bridge.

Who’s taking the final European spot?

More than London pride was on the line for Mauricio Pochettino facing his old club at the tail end of a difficult first season at Chelsea.

But whisper it, Stamford Bridge’s annus horribilis could still finish on a high after they put Tottenham to the sword with relative ease.

Nine points separate the Blues from Spurs in the race for the Premier League’s final European place, with both teams having four games left apiece.

The run-in for Ange Postecoglou’s side is comparatively more difficult, with Sunday’s trip to Liverpool and a midweek meeting with Manchester City in the mix.

Pochettino might still fall short against his latest successor at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium but it promises to be an intriguing subplot in the season’s final weeks.

Angry Ange shows standards are slipping

Postecoglou cut a visibly frustrated figure on the touchline at the Bridge.

Admittedly it doesn’t take much to draw the straight-talking Australian’s ire but Tottenham’s players must have dreaded the half-time interval.

Conceding from set pieces continues to haunt the Lilywhites’ manager and his irritation boiled over as their Champions League bid slipped out of reach.

Worse still, no player created more chances for the visitors than Giovanni Lo Celso, whose three were fashioned after coming on as an 86th-minute substitute.

It’s all a far cry from the high standards set at the start of this season, when Postecoglou looked a sure-fire bet to be crowned Manager of the Year.

Who’s laughing now?

It seems that Nicolas Jackson isn’t quite as bad as his most vocal critics would have people believe – and this game proved it.

The Senegalese has been an easy punchline during Chelsea’s rollercoaster campaign but statistics suggest that he is possibly unfairly maligned.

Jackson’s fourth goal in a second outing against Tottenham saw him eclipse Didier Drogba’s haul of 10 goals in his own Premier League debut campaign.

He has already scored against the club’s sworn enemy as many times in eight months as Didier Drogba managed across a combined nine-year spell.

Jackson isn’t without his flaws, as we saw with the infamous penalty row against Everton a few weeks back, but it seems many people have him all wrong.