Jose Mourinho on Sunday won the 21st trophy of his career as Chelsea showed Tottenham no mercy with a clinical 2-0 victory in the Capital One Cup final at Wembley.
John Terry’s deflected close-range effort beat Hugo Lloris to put Chelsea ahead at the end of the first half and Kyle Walker turned Diego Costa’s low drive into his own net after the break to give Mourinho victory in the pouring rain.
Both goals were slightly fortuitous – but few would argue the Chelsea boss was lucky to win the trophy on Sunday.
Tottenham came to Wembley full of hope after their recent rejuvenation under Mauricio Pochettino. They played some fantastic football – and Christian Eriksen went close to giving them the lead when he struck the bar in the first half – but ultimately he was outwitted by his opposite number.
It was Tottenham who came closest to opening the scoring inside the opening 10 minutes when Christian Eriksen brushed himself down after winning a free kick and saw his attempt come back off the crossbar.
Chelsea were mounting numerous counter-attacks and this looked to be their best way of finding a way through when Costa and Eden Hazard combined for the latter to curl a shot narrowly wide of goal. Chances were kept to a minimum for the vast majority of the opening 45 minutes, however, with Petr Cech’s stop from Eriksen’s angled shot 10 minutes before the interval proving to be the last of Tottenham’s openings.
Just as the half looked to be edging towards a goalless conclusion, Blues skipper, Terry, fired home unmarked from a few yards out after Mauricio Pochettino’s men failed to deal with a corner whipped into the box. Gary Cahill could have doubled his side’s advantage with seconds to go before the break, but he saw his header kept out by Lloris.
The Lilywhites, who were looking to reclaim the trophy they last won back in 2008, forced the issue in the early stages of the second period, but they were unable to find an equalising goal with Chelsea, adding a decisive second 10 minutes after the restart.
Costa, without a goal in four games prior to Sunday’s match, was the man who found the net, thanks to a huge slice of luck, as the striker’s shot from a tight angle deflected heavily off Kyle Walker to leave Lloris helpless between the sticks.
Spurs failed to muster up any real opportunities as they struggled to find a route back into the game, with Terry’s tackle to deny Kane in the closing stages as good as it got for the remainder.
Mourinho’s men had failed to keep a clean sheet in each of their last six cup finals, but there was no route back into the game for their London rivals in a somewhat flat conclusion to the contest, which saw the Blues see out the game with relative ease to stand triumphant at Wembley.