José Mourinho’s first piece of silverware during his initial spell as manager at Chelsea came in the League Cup, and the Special One earned the first trophy of his second spell in West London on Sunday in the same competition with a 2-0 victory over Tottenham at Wembley Stadium. The Capital One Cup triumph, which came thanks to goals from John Terry and Kyle Walker (own goal), ended Mourinho’s longest trophy drought of his career at two years and 10 months and saw Chelsea win the first of three potential trophies in the 2014/15 campaign.
With Chelsea’s midfield stalwart, Nemanja Matić, serving the first game of his two-match suspension, Mourinho opted to use his versatile young centre back Kurt Zouma as a defensive midfielder in the middle of the pitch to provide cover to his back line of Branslav Ivanovic, Gary Cahill, Terry and César Azpilicueta. The Portuguese manager also gave the experienced Petr Cech the nod between the sticks over Thibaut Coutois, and the veteran keeper did not disappoint by delivering a clean sheet.
The modified lineup was a mixed bag results wise in the early going, as Tottenham looked the more dangerous side with an early run from Harry Kane forcing a save from Cech and a Christian Erisken free kick rattling off the cross bar in the ninth minute. Chelsea sat back for much of the first half and Tottenham pushed forward at every opportunity. Spurs were unable to take advantage of the space afforded to them by the Blues, however, as the end product was missing for Tottenham throughout the opening half.
Perhaps the best chance of the first 45 minutes for the North London club came in the 36th minute when Eriksen drove a low shot from the left side of the box. The ball found its way through the legs of a Chelsea defender, but Cech was there to handle the save with relative ease.
The breakthrough for Chelsea came in the 44th minute when Nacer Chadli brought down Ivanovic on the right side of the box. The resulting free kick from Willian took a pair of deflections off Spurs defenders before landing at the feet of the Chelsea captain Terry, who fired low into the back of the net with his right foot to give the Blues a 1-0 advantage. Terry’s blast took a deflection off Eric Dier, leaving Spurs keeper Hugo Lloris with no chance to stop it from finding goal. The Blues nearly took a 2-0 lead before the break when Cahill fired a header towards the net off a CFC corner, but Lloris did well to keep the centre back’s effort out.
After a relatively anonymous first half, Cesc Fàbregas and Willian came alive for the Blues after the break. Fàbregas was especially good, nearly scoring a brilliant goal in minute 49 when with a well-struck ball on a bicycle kick that Lloris kept out with a diving save at the lower left corner.
In the 56th minute, the Spaniard came up big again when he found Costa in the left side of the 18-yard box. After a sweet first touch, Diego fired toward goal and found home thanks to a deflection off the toe of defender Kyle Walker that sent the ball near post. Walker was credited with an own goal.
After a timid first half, the Blues were clearly the better side in the second frame thanks in large part to great efforts from the midfield trio of Hazard, Fàbregas and Willian. Zouma was also exceptional for Chelsea throughout the match, looking very solid while playing in an unfamiliar position and doing very well to help contain Eriksen and Kane for much of the evening. Without putting a foot wrong, the young Frenchman continued his run of stellar play and excitement for his immense future will grow even more.
The clean sheet marked the first for Chelsea in its last seven cup finals, but it was not preserved easily. With Tottenham throwing everything forward in search of goals late, Chelsea’s defenders came up with some big plays to make sure Cech was not seriously troubled down the stretch. Terry showed why he is still regarded as the best centre half in England when he made a diving block against Kane after the English forward had broken through into the box and fired what would have almost certainly been a shot on goal toward Cech. Ivanovic got in on the action in the 89th minute when he cleared a dangerous cross from Roberto Soldado in front of goal and in stoppage time the much-maligned Cahill made a superb tackle of his own on Kane in the box to wrap up what was a very solid performance for the England co-captain.
The win marked Chelsea’s fifth Capital One Cup victory and the Blues hope that it will provide a springboard in the race for the Premier League and Champions League crowns to be decided later in the year. The Blues will celebrate this victory and then move on to preparation for Wednesday’s Premier League fixture against West Ham at Upton Park.
You can follow Scott Crumbly on Twitter @ScottCrumbly.
