Chelsea eased past London rivals Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday evening to rack-up their third win against former boss Antonio Conte in as many weeks.
After a cagey opening period - in which Harry Kane had a goal controversially disallowed - Hakim Ziyech jolted Thomas Tuchel ’s men into life with a spectacular strike just after the break.
The Blues doubled their advantage only eight minutes later as Thiago Silva added to his goal at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium with another after he nodded home from a free-kick.
Victory keeps Chelsea in third in the Premier League table - ten points behind leaders Manchester City - with the mid-season break now putting domestic commitments on hold.
Here is how the national media saw the game play out in west London.
THE INDEPENDENT
Push comes to shove for Tottenham Hotspur, as Chelsea are launched back up the table by one divine delivery.
Thomas Tuchel claimed his first Premier League win of 2022 as Antonio Conte also suffered his first league defeat as Spurs manager, although this 2-0 win was still more commanding than it was controversial.
The extent of the difference between the sides is actually reinforced by another figure, which is that this was Chelsea’s third win over their London rivals in as many weeks. Spurs will say the game could have gone a different way if the decision over Harry Kane’s disallowed goal had gone another way, but most of the play was only going in one direction.
Chelsea did require an effort to supremely change direction in order to make good on that, as the resurgent Hakim Ziyech offered the moment of the game in terms of pure play – and probably one of the goals of the season – if not its most discussed incident.
As if to bring it all full circle, Spurs might even point to the fact that Thiago Silva gave a little nudge of his own for the header that confirmed the win.
DAILY MAIL
The goal that set Chelsea on the road to a much-needed victory at Stamford Bridge was a thing of real beauty.
Hakim Ziyech’s curling left foot strike high to the right of Tottenham goalkeeper Hugo Lloris in the opening moments of the second half was so geometrically perfect that it seemed to receive a kiss from both the post and the crossbar on its way in.
Lloris didn’t dive and that didn’t matter. He wouldn’t have saved it.
Equally, it was not the beautiful things that separated Chelsea from their capital rivals here. Not really.
This was at times a functional, pragmatic performance from a team looking to ease itself from a difficult run of results. The second goal, for example, was a set-piece header from defender Thiago Silva. That one was much more straight forward.
So, no, Chelsea were not brilliant. They were just better than Tottenham. Much, much better.
THE GUARDIAN
It was a moment that made all of Chelsea’s problems fade away. Suddenly, nobody was worrying about a draining fixture list and a worrying run of results. Stamford Bridge had come alive and even Hakim Ziyech was smiling after opening the scoring for Chelsea, who had looked short of attacking inspiration before their mercurial winger gave them the lead with one of the goals of the season.
This was Ziyech at his absolute best: cutting in from the right, the ball on his left foot and a shot bent wickedly into the far corner. Hugo Lloris could only watch helplessly as the ball flew past him and Chelsea, who have looked so tetchy and tired of late, could feel their season coming back to life.
Spurs, on the other hand, had much to ponder after losing in the league for the first time under Antonio Conte. Their hopes of dragging Chelsea into a top-four battle looked fanciful on this evidence.
Ultimately there is no substitute for class and while Spurs fought hard, they had none of Chelsea’s individual quality; nobody capable of opening up a tight game quite as inventively as Ziyech, whose splendid goal at the start of the second half was followed by Thiago Silva settling the contest with a fine header from Mason Mount ’s free-kick.
THE SUN
What Antonio Conte would give for a defender as streetwise as Thiago Silva.
Chelsea’s Brazilian veteran successfully conned referee Paul Tierney into disallowing a Harry Kane ‘opener’ - then headed home the second goal for the European champions, as Spurs collapsed in a heap.
Spurs have now faced Chelsea four times this season - three of them under Conte - and lost all four, without scoring.
At least not one which counted - as Kane also had an effort disallowed for offside in the second leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final at White Hart Lane.
Chelsea were supposedly knackered by a heavy schedule but they still had far too much for their hapless rivals - Hakim Ziyech netted a gorgeous opener before Thiago’s header settled the contest.
Spurs, in theory, could have moved to within five points of Chelsea with four games in hand by winning here.
But despite the controversy of Kane’s non-goal - after an innocuous nudge had sent the 37-year-old Thiago sprawling just before half-time - a Spurs victory never looked likely.
