Chelsea moved up to eighth spot on the Premier League table defeating Tottenham Hotspur 2-0 at Stamford Bridge on Thursday evening.
Adam Gilchrist came in as the sole change for the Blues, while James Maddison was named on the bench for Spurs as Richarlison earned a recall to the starting line-up.
Chelsea were fortunate not to take a fifth minute lead through Nicolas Jackson from a move by Mykhailo Mudryk, but the visitors recovered to see Micky Van de Ven clear off the line.
The deadlock were broken in the midway period after Trevor Chalobah managed to rise above Emerson to nod beyond the out-stretched Guglielmo Vicario.
With the lead intact, the Blues looked to extend the tally later on and were inches away courtesy of a curler from Mudryk outside the box but it sailed over the top of target.
Spurs were alive on the stroke of halftime and nearly clawed level from a move involving Pedro Porro, but the danger was cleared by a certain Chalobah.
Not a lot separated the two teams in the opening quarter of the second half, with the Blues still in control and keen to consolidate matters.
Spurs showed a fresh pair of legs a little later in Maddison for Pape Matar Sarr and Richarlison for Rodrigo Bentancur before Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg entered ahead of Yves Bissouma.
As the tie balanced up, the host extended the lead when Jackson charged onto a loose ball off the underside of the crossbar following Cole Palmer’s free-kick and headed in the bottom-corner.
Palmer went close again in the way of another set-play in the final exchanges, but Vicario was able to thwart him this time around.
The host enjoyed all of the momentum in the latter period to get back on the winning path and derailed their rivals’ top-four push.
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