Fernando Torres had one of those games where he actually made quite an impact in the blue shirt of Chelsea.
However, it was all torn apart when a harsh second yellow card saw him having to walk off the pitch in disgust. It did not matter too much in the end, though, as the battle of the former friends - Jose Mourinho and Andre Villas-Boas - ended in a 1-1 draw.
Gylfi Sigurdsson opened the scoring for Tottenham in the London derby of the English Premier League at White Hart Lane, but a much improved second half performance saw Chelsea duly rewarded with the equaliser that came via the head of skipper John Terry.
Tottenham move to the top of the table, for at least a few hours with 13 points from six matches, while Chelsea remain two behind their London rivals on eleven.
Jose Mourinho did not name Juan Mata in the starting lineup, although the Spaniard was at least involved in the squad. The Chelsea manager went for a bit of a conservative XI, with Ramires joining Frank Lampard and John Obi Mikel, while only Eden Hazard and Oscar were used as the playmakers.
There weren't too many surprises in the Tottenham lineup as the match started with a decently good tempo.
There were a couple of potshots from distance from both sides as the game looked to warm up. What was missing was a goal to liven up things a little bit and give the match that edge, and Spurs duly obliged with a nice one in the 19th minute, with the classy Christian Eriksen at the forefront of it all.
The Danish playmaker took the ball onto his feet before turning brilliantly towards the outside left channel. Eriksen then found a pass into the box to Roberto Soldado who cushioned it for the onrushing Sigurdsson, with the Icelandic international just about managing to stay in control before lifting it over Petr Cech.
After the goal, sensing the urgency and the cold, hard look given by their manager, Chelsea started to grow into the game, albeit without creating too many clearcut chances.
However, the intent to at least find the equaliser was visibly increased with Hazard and Oscar looking to find that killer pass or strike past a stingy Tottenham defence, that has conceded just one goal all season.
In fact it was Spurs that could have gone into halftime two goals to the good, with Paulinho missing a really presentable chance. Andros Townsend drove into the box before playing a nice through ball to the Brazilian midfielder, whose shot, with Cech coming out, only found the outside the post.
Mourinho, with a loss to his protégé looking like a real possibility, broke off the shackles by bringing on Mata for Mikel.
However, it was another Spaniard - Fernando Torres - that looked the brightest at the start of the half, with the former Liverpool man creating a couple of chances.
First the striker broke down the right before squaring the ball towards Oscar, who just could not reach it with a gaping goal in front of him.
Torres, deciding to be direct, ran at the Spurs defence and nearly found a way through as Chelsea kept their foot on that attacking accelerator.
Mata found the back of the net for Chelsea, but the Spanish international was rightly flagged for offside. However, Chelsea, now, had their tails up and a goal looked like quite a possibility as the needle in the game increased considerably.
It did come and from their man mountain of a skipper John Terry in the 65th minute. Jan Vertonghen fouled Ramires which led to a freekick for Chelsea, with Mata swinging in a wicked delivery which was headed gleefully in by Terry.
Chelsea now looked like they could win the game with Torres setting up Andre Schurrle, in for Hazard, with a one-on-one chance with Hugo Lloris. The French goalkeeper, though, came up trumps, making a terrific save.
Torres' night ended in tremendous disappointment, though, with a little under ten minutes remaining as referee Mike Dean showed the striker a second yellow card for an innocuous challenge on Vertonghen. The first yellow that Torres picked up was also debatable and the Spaniard was incredibly unlucky to be given his marching orders.
Jermain Defoe and Sigurdsson came quite close in the last few minutes, but the winner would not come as Villas-Boas vs Mourinho ended with a share of the spoils.
