Chelsea 1 Tottenham 2 After extra time. 1-1 after 90 mins:SOME VICTORIES are worth more than the trophy itself. Tottenham Hotspur went against the standard operating procedure of English football by coming from behind to beat the supposedly implacable Chelsea. The losers have much left to play for in the Champions League, FA Cup and, just conceivably, the Premier League but no one in their camp felt last night that the League Cup was a cheap trinket dangling meaninglessly from the fixture list.
This game, with its half-hour of extra-time, lasted so long that it took on an obsessive power for both teams. The winner in the 94th minute, from Jonathan Woodgate, came through a mistake by the Chelsea goalkeeper, Petr Cech, but the result itself was no accident and Tottenham earned their first trophy in nine years. They had spells, particularly in pursuit of the equaliser, which embodied a brightness and excitement beyond the reach of these deposed holders.
In knockout football, Juande Ramos generally ensures it is the opposition who wind up seeing stars. The Tottenham manager understands how to stifle a game but here he showed how he can let talent breathe. Chelsea, who had Avram Grant in charge for a first final with them, did not cope with the critical passage, at the start of the second half.
Aaron Lennon, switched to the left, then preyed on Juliano Belletti, a full back yearning to be a winger. Once Jermaine Jenas had hustled Michael Essien into losing possession, Lennon crossed deep and Wayne Bridge, harassed by the substitute Tom Huddlestone, handled the ball. The assistant referee signalled for the offence and, despite Chelsea claims that the contact had been accidental, a penalty was awarded by Mark Halsey. Dimitar Berbatov slotted it away with haughty indifference to mere goalkeepers at spot-kicks.
The introduction of Huddlestone for Pascal Chimbonda was one aspect of a facility with substitutions. Once the match is over, tactical acumen often looks like little more than an exercise in common sense, but these alterations have to be contemplated under a pressure that can warp a lesser person's judgment.
By the close Ramos had made Tottenham iron-clad. Mindful of the fitness concerns over Ledley King, who was appearing for the first time in a month, he had sent on Younes Kaboul as an additional centre half. The practicality, ironically, was redolent of the modern Chelsea and in some ways the victors stole their opponents' clothes. Tottenham were the ones who persevered to get themselves in front and then declined to be overhauled.
The winner, it must be agreed, was absurd. Four minutes into extra-time, Jenas sent in a free-kick from the left which brushed past his team-mate Woodgate, only for Cech to punch the ball against the defender's face, from where it bounced into the net.
The Chelsea goalkeeper has suffered more accidents of late than he did formerly, but it was also he who had promised for a while to frustrate Tottenham. When Robbie Keane sent Didier Zokora clear in the 81st minute, the Czech international closed on him so that the finish cannoned off his head.
There had been questions about whether the temperament of the Tottenham squad as a whole could remain intact over the course of a final with redoubtable adversaries. Warning signs were, quite erroneously, detected. Ramos's side, for instance, squandered openings at the very start. Keane and King might each have scored in the first minute and, not long afterwards, Chimbonda headed a Lennon corner-kick against the bar.
There were further opportunities, which made it all the more ominous when Chelsea took the lead in unsurprising manner after 37 minutes. Zokora bumped clumsily into Didier Drogba to concede a free-kick. The much-doubted goalkeeper Paul Robinson then organised a defensive wall before, in effect, leaving himself immured by standing unsighted directly behind it. Drogba was then assisted by Keane changing his position as the Ivorian ran up and the shot flew home comfortably.
In the late panic Robinson, after 113 minutes, pulled off a good save from Salomon Kalou with his boot, but reservations are not cancelled out so simply and there must be a high probability that a new goalkeeper will arrive at White Hart Lane in the summer.
Ramos has already completed important work in the transfer window and Woodgate, purchased from Middlesbrough, was unsurpassed at Wembley. In open play the centre back nullified Drogba and all other threats with his low-key authority. All the same, Chelsea will look for the deeper causes of the defeat.
If anyone still accepted that the club had parted company with Jose Mourinho to bring in an era of dashing football they must be seeing the error of their ways. Pragmatism was still the dominant philosophy at Wembley, but it no longer delivered the correct result. One weekend newspaper report claimed that Chelsea had edited an article about Grant in the match programme to remove references to Mourinho. Why would they cut out mention of the greatest manager in the club's history? Because, presumably, he is the greatest manager in the club's history and therefore puts Grant under strain.
The Israeli had a horrid day. His tactics, with Nicolas Anelka stuck on the left for much of the final, blunted Chelsea. Although Grant has chances left in more prestigious competitions, the return of his squad to almost full strength intensifies the scrutiny. Comparative obscurity served him better and when Chelsea did begin to be studied intensely the club had a horrible goalless draw at home to Liverpool which checked a revival in the Premier League.
Grant now has to start all over again to vindicate his appointment. Don't tell him the League Cup is an irrelevance.
