Ricardo Carvalho scored the winner as Chelsea edged 1-0 past Tottenham at Stamford Bridge to maintain their title chase to Manchester United. The game featured the appearance of Egyptian duo Hossam Ghaly and Ahmed Hossam 'Mido' in the Spurs starting line-up. The winner came when the Portugeuse center back produced a spectacular long-range effort to beat Paul Robinson (52) earning the English champions their eighth successive Premiership win. Midweek European fixtures forced both managers to rest some key players including the likes of Andriy Shevchenko and Michael Ballack for the Blues as well as Aaron Lennon, Dimitar Berbatov and Robbie Keane for Martin Jol's side. Ghaly played the full 90 minutes and got cautioned early in the match (17) after he clipped Chelsea defender Wayne Bridge. Mido was replaced by Berbatov in the 68th minute after he was guilty of missing a crucial close-range header denied superbly by Petr Cech just seconds before Carvalho's winner. Chelsea, second with 75th point, closed the gap on leaders Manchester United to three points, and hope the latter could slip-up against Portsmouth in order to stay on course of a third consecutive Premiership title.
