Tottenham beat Chelsea after Mike Penders error and Cole Palmer's red — and was corner set-up to blame? New York Times (Online) Liam Twomey Tottenham Hotspur overcame Chelsea 2-0 on Saturday to give them their first win at Stamford Bridge for eight years. Omar Marmoush came close to opening the scoring just before the half-hour mark, but his close-range shot was turned away by Mike Penders. Pedro Neto also came close to opening the scoring late in the first-half. A drab second-half was almost brought to life by Neto, who had a shot from inside the box that was turned away by Antonin Kinsky. But the scoring was actually opened through an error from goalkeeper Mike Penders, who punched the ball into the back of his own net in the 77th minute after a Mateus Fernandes corner. This was swiftly followed up by Cole Palmer being dismissed after two yellow cards. Mathys Tel then wrapped up the win for Spurs with a brilliant dribble and long-range strike in the 87th minute. The Athletic's Liam Twomey, Jack Pitt-Brooke, Jack Lang and Ahmed Walid analyse the key talking points from Saturday's game. Just as in his unexpected cameo against Everton last weekend, Mike Penders got the Chelsea supporters on his side early with a booming punch. Penders may be only 21, but he carries a presence well beyond his years, helped by his 6ft 7in frame and huge wingspan. His sheer physical dimensions lend themselves to a highly proactive style of goalkeeping, and his assurance when attacking high balls floated into his penalty area helped him quickly win the trust of Chelsea's defenders in difficult circumstances. Chelsea's set-piece coach Austin MacPhee had adopted a bold strategy when defending corner kicks against Spurs, keeping four attackers upfield to create more of a counter-attacking threat — and surely in part to clear the box for Penders to do his work. It was a cruel irony, then, that a Penders punch proved Chelsea's undoing against their most hated rivals. The Belgian waited perhaps a beat too long to rise with Jan Paul Van Hecke to meet an inswinging Mateus Fernandes corner kick. He still got to the ball first but, under pressure, misdirected his punch horribly behind him and it looped over the line before Maxence Lacroix could clear it. This level of football is an unforgiving cauldron for a goalkeeper, as Tottenham's goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky can attest. Kinsky appears to have recovered well from a far more devastating cascade of errors against Atletico Madrid in the Champions League in March, and Penders will be expected to shake this particular mistake off quickly. He could do nothing about Mathys Tel's brilliant late second, and by then Palmer's indiscipline had taken the spotlight away from Chelsea's young goalkeeper. Liam Twomey Tottenham had not won at Stamford Bridge since 2018. Before then, they had not won here, quite amazingly, since 1990. They knew that they would have to be perfect to break that curse. And they came here and delivered an almost-complete team performance to win this game 2-0. They dominated in midfield throughout, reduced Chelsea to a few shots, all of which Antonin Kinsky was equal to. Normally in these games Spurs lose their heads and the moments go against them. Not today. They kept up the pressure and went ahead when Penders punched a corner into his own net. Cole Palmer lost his head and got sent off. And then Mathys Tel killed the game with a brilliant solo goal. This time, in an unprecedented way, all the big moments went Spurs' way. Spurs have been waiting for a lift-off moment all season, a big click to prove they are on the right track. This complete team performance, this breaking of their Chelsea curse, could prove to be exactly that. Jack Pitt-Brooke Chelsea's defensive setup on their corners has been catching the eye this season. It's an interesting approach. They leave three or four players up the pitch to prepare for the counter-attack and force your opponent to put their players deeper, which is something Chelsea did on a couple of occasions last season. This ploy has its benefits , but there is a strong counterpoint to leaving players up the pitch when you are defending. Defending with fewer players inside the penalty area means the opponent has more space to attack, and if Chelsea are heavily man-to-man in their approach, it becomes easy to manipulate using that area. In the 2-2 draw against Hull City in September, it led to Morgan Rogers' goal, but it also left Chelsea with few players on the corner from which Mohamed Belloumi scored the visitors' second goal. Against Tottenham, Chelsea kept four players up the pitch, leaving one player to defend the short option, Josh Acheampong zonal on the near post, and the remaining four as man-markers. On the corner that led to the goal, Jan Paul van Hecke managed to use Dominic Solanke as a screen to get away from his marker, Maxence Lacroix, and challenge Mike Penders, who put the cross in his own net. In a Premier League where teams have been focusing on corners in the last couple of seasons, it's a needless risky approach. Ahmed Walid This was, until the final stages, a frustrating game to watch. That it was also frustrating for Chelsea's players to play in was laid bare by Palmer's late-game antics, a meltdown told in two chapters. It began 69 minutes in, when Chelsea put together a promising counter-attack down the right. Moises Caicedo led it, only to be brought down by Micky van de Ven. The ball fell to Palmer, who surged past Matheus Fernandes, only for the latter to collapse on the ball and — in Palmer's view — deliberately handle it. Palmer was probably right to think Fernandes was deliberately denying him a chance to run in on goal. His reaction, though, was over the top: he rushed at the Portuguese midfielder, who was still on his knees, barging him to the floor. That prompted further shoving between the two sides and earned Palmer a yellow card. Less than 10 minutes later, he went into a tackle with Conor Gallagher 25 yards from the Chelsea goal. Gallagher got to the ball first; Palmer's studs landed on his boot. Whether it was careless or malicious is up for debate, but the result was not. Palmer had to go, taking Chelsea's hopes of getting anything from the game with him. Jack Lang For 48 minutes here, this was a dominant Tottenham midfield performance, with Maddison at its heart. De Zerbi played Sandro Tonali, Mateus Fernandes and Maddison in the middle together for the first time. Maddison was trusted to start again, having scored the opener against Coventry City on Monday night. This was a show of faith after 17 months without being able to start a game. And in that first half, Tottenham were able to dominate the middle of the pitch. Tonali, Fernandes and Maddison played in clever little triangles around Chelsea's midfield pair. It allowed Spurs to get into some fantastic positions, whether playing in Mathys Tel down the left or making space on the edge of the box. They were not able to take advantage — the front line is not on the level of the rest of the team — but it was a real foothold in the game. And it all revolved around Maddison's unique ability to read the game, to pop up in dangerous little pockets and to ask Chelsea tactical questions they could not answer. But three minutes into the second half Maddison went down with an injury. He knew that he could not continue and looked disconsolate as he limped off the pitch. It remains to be seen how long he will be out for, but it is no secret that Tottenham do not have anyone quite as clever, quite as inventive and probing as Maddison in that 10 space. Jack Pitt-Brooke Chelsea — Wednesday, October 28 : Carabao Cup fourth round, Liverpool (A), 4pm ET, 8pm GMT Tottenham Hotspur — Saturday, October 31 : Premier League, Crystal Palace (H), 9.30am ET, 1.30pm GMT