Chelsea 2 Tottenham 2: Mauricio Pochettino's passion play cannot inspire Spurs to victory

Spurs manager shows committment to the cause with fiery display on touchline

Mauricio Pochettino has words with Willian during the match (Getty)

There are some managers who stay sat in their seats clutching their A4 ring binders, some who occasionally wander to the touchline to issue instructions and there are others who, in spirit, kick every ball, contest every tackle, rise for every header and fight every fight. Mauricio Pochettino falls squarely into the latter category.

If the Argentinian felt the dropped points at White Hart Lane last Monday night were the final nails in the Tottenham title coffin then he did a grand job of disguising it at Stamford Bridge where his passion raged from the first minute to the last. That he could not help his team extend the title race to Saturday was not down to apathy.

The manager prowled and scowled in his technical area, screamed at his players, jumped up and down, span full circle and got involved in the fisticuffs at the final whistle. He berated the Chelsea bench, jumped on to the pitch to split up players, barked at his own bench. It was some display from the Spurs man. Even during the calmer moments he sat down, bobbed up again, rubbed his shoe on the back of his standing leg, variously his arms urging his team up the pitch when the game was goalless or spread wide in disbelief when a decision went against his team. There was plenty to be animated about during a heated match but such was the Argentinian’s mood one felt he may have been fired up had barely a tackle been made.

The match was a full-on, fearsome and feisty affair from the moment Eric Dier and Diego Costa barged shoulders as the teams swapped halves following the coin toss. The first whistle hadn’t even sounded and they were at it. Such nasty, niggly incidents would pepper the match. There were, of course, high stakes for Spurs, Chelsea only the pride in being the ones to end their bitter rivals’ title quest.

The Tottenham manager, of course, showed his commitment to the club by announcing on Friday that he had reached a verbal agreement with Spurs to extend his contract. He used words such as “happy” and “love” - not in the same context as Louis Van Gaal would 48 hours later, thank God - and spoke glowingly of the future he foresaw at Tottenham. There was no doubting his commitment at the Bridge during a frantic, spicy encounter.

The managers’ technical areas at Stamford Bridge are a short hop to the touchline and for spells against Chelsea it was as if Pochettino was playing wing-back. At one point, early in the game, the fourth official Andre Marriner had to tug at the Argentinian’s coat to get him back in his box.

That was nothing, though, compared to the moment when Pochettino, pen still in hand, jumped onto the pitch to split up Danny Rose and Willian who were engaged in a bout of chest shoving. That moment of impetuousness, however well-intentioned it was, nearly caused a 20-man brawl before the Argentinian raised his arms to display his innocence.

Pochettino’s cajoling was not simply of the ‘up and at em’ nature either. At one point he showed his tactical nous by whistling to Dier, gesticulating that he should play further to the left. Dier immediately found himself in the right place to intercept a Chelsea foray forward.

For the Dutchman Guus Hiddink there was of course little riding on the match other than pride for this temporary manager overseeing a team stranded in mid-table. In comparison to Pochettino he was positively becalmed. At one point he even wandered into the wrong technical area and had to be helped back to his own by Marriner.

Meanwhile, the fireworks continued on the pitch with it evident Pochettino’s team is built in his image. This match was a scrap from start to end - but they stood up to the fight, went toe-to-toe with the reigning champions and mixed it. Moussa Dembele appeared to go too far, of course, when he seemed to claw at Costa’s eyes but there was not one lily livered lilywhite on show. Dier was immense in midfield, doing the dirty stuff that sustains title challenges, Kyle Walker, like most his team-mates flirted with danger all night but showed his steel throughout the match. The Spurs central defender Jan Vertongen is no shrinking violet either as he displayed with his running battle with Costa.

It is not just his players who share Pochettino’s fiery temperament. His assistant head coach Jesus Perez had to be rebuked by Marriner - who if he thought he was in for a quiet night, was very wrong - in the first half when he threw a water bottle on to the pitch after one of many late tackles.

Maybe Tottenham got caught up in all the aggression and testosterone at the Bridge - that was still to the fore at the end as the brawling continued down the tunnel - and took their eye off the ball to the extent that it cost them those two vital points that handed the title to Claudio Ranieri and his Leicester City team. But there is no doubting that this Tottenham side has got some grit, some determination and some fight in them - and it’s not hard to see where they get it from.