Harry Kane’s penalty gave Tottenham a narrow first-leg win in the Carabao Cup semi-final clash Wembley.
Kane was initially adjudged to have been offside before being brought down by keeper Kepa on 27 minutes.
However, after VAR indicated there was no offside, a spot-kick was awarded, which Kane calmly converted.
Chelsea dominated the second half but were unable to find an equaliser.
They can, though, approach the second leg at Stamford Bridge with some confidence.
They survived an early scare when Andreas Christensen was given the benefit of the doubt by referee Michael Oliver after Son Heung-min went down under a challenge from the defender as they chased Dele Alli’s ball over the top.
Christensen could have been in trouble had he been deemed to have fouled Son, who would have been through on goal.
After Kane’s acrobatic effort was well saved by Kepa, the visitors enjoyed a spell in which they were on top and Callum Hudson-Odoi had an effort saved by keeper Paulo Gazzaniga after being found by Willian.
But just as Chelsea seemed to be getting the upper hand, they found themselves a goal down.
They went close to equalising when N’Golo Kante nudged Marcos Alonso’s cross on to the outside of the post.
In the final seconds of the first half, Gazzaniga pulled off a magnificent save to tip the ball on to the post after Hudson-Odoi’s strike had taken a deflection off Danny Rose.
And Christensen contrived to miss a great second-half chance to equalise, awkwardly firing over in acres of space at the far post after Willian’s corner had been flicked on by Ross Barkley.
Chelsea: Kepa, Azpilicueta, Christensen, Rudiger, Alonso, Jorginho, Kante, Barkley (Kovacic 76), Willian (Pedro 63), Hazard, Hudson-Odoi (Giroud 80)
Subs not used: Caballero, Zappacosta, Ampadu, Luiz.
This post was last modified on 10/01/2019
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Allow Hudson Odoi to depart from Chelsea is going to be a disaster.
Letting Hudson Odoi depart will be a hugely regrettable mistake on the part of Chelsea. We refuse to learn from our history.