Jorginho took back the responsibility of penalty kicks to earn Chelsea a crucial three points at bitter rivals Tottenham Hotspur.
The win means Chelsea are now three unbeaten since the arrival of Thomas Tuchel and contrastingly Jose Mourinho’s side have lost their last three matches in the league.
Tuchel spoke post-match about the delight over his players’ desire in the derby: ‘It is not only about tactics, it’s how we play, it’s not all about the structure but it’s about how we engage with those tactics and the players were one-hundred percent committed and with full intensity, that is the most important thing. We were brave and we were the deserved winners in the end.’
Despite the win the German insists there is still a lot of room for improvement: ‘A bit more killer instinct a bit more aggressive in front of goal would’ve been nice because we could’ve killed the game in the first half and even at the start of the second half.
‘During the whole match there were chances where we lacked a bit of determination in the box with the last touch but it is best when we win like this because we still have areas to improve.’
The Blues started the match on the front-foot and had a shot on goal seconds after kick-off with Timo Werner’s header looping over from a Cesar Azpilicueta’s long ball.
The chance gave an indicator of how the rest of the match was going to play out as the visitors dominated the ball and the match.
Spurs set up to frustrate their opponents defending the width of their box, but the creativity from Mason Mount, who was deployed as a false nine, caused their backline several problems throughout.
The hosts’ defensive resilience lasted until the 23rd minute when Eric Dier clumsily brought down Werner in the box to gift Chelsea a penalty.
The resulting penalty saw Jorginho retake the penalty responsibility from the German striker and the midfielder reverted to a more customary run-up, after missing his last three penalties, to power the ball past Hugo Lloris and give the Blues a deserved lead.
In a rare first-half attack from Tottenham, Serge Aurier came close to equalising but headed wide with a free header from inside the box.
After the break, the hosts had to come forward and attack, causing Chelsea problems early on with their high press.
However, the Blues soon found their rhythm again and passed through the press to create dangerous chances to double their lead.
Mount drove through midfield before teeing up Werner who seemed set to end his 13-game goalless streak in the league only for Aurier’s last ditch tackle to deny the German.
Mateo Kovacic saw a similar run end disappointingly after toe-poking wide from a three-versus-three scenario.
Mount then tried his own luck getting in behind before firing a low drilled effort on goal, which was saved well by Lloris.
Spurs pushed for a late equaliser but Carlos Vinicius failed to mark his first Premier League start with a goal heading wide of the target from six yards out, with only three minutes left to play.
The result sees Chelsea leapfrog Tottenham and Everton to move into sixth position having played once more than their opponents and twice more than the Toffees, while Spurs fall to eighth spot.
