Final thoughts: Future readers of Rothman's, or Wikipedia, or whatever, will see this scoreline and assume that Spurs were on the receiving end of a genuine pasting. They'd be wrong. This was a fake pasting. A counterfeit thumping. It was the result not of Chelsea's immense superiority, but of a referee's idiocy, and a goalkeeper's good fortune, and a subsequent tactical change that backfired badly.
Martin Atkinson, after the Balotelli/Song incident last week ÔÇô if he'd failed to see that incident it would have been embarrassing, but he then had to admit that he had seen it after all, and just made a totally inexplicable decision ÔÇô should not referee another match this season. He should be put in the corner of a room, wearing a dunce's cap, and told to think about what he's done, until May if necessary.
Even accepting that incident, how Spurs must wish that Bale had not been at hand to turn the ball in and apparently bring them back into the match a few minutes later. A penalty, and 35 minutes against 10 men, would have made them considerably more likely victors.
Then, Redknapp brought the impressive Van der Vaart off, and brought on Defoe. The result was Chelsea running wild in the final 20 minutes against an understaffed midfield. If he had to take off a midfielder, surely the disappointing Modric would have been a better choice. And then, once the score went to 3-1, and given what had happened up to then, they just gave up.
Congratulations to Chelsea. They took advantage of all these things impressively. But anyone who watched this game will surely always consider this a compromised victory.