Chelsea 2-2 Tottenham: When Eden Hazard Won Leicester the Title in 'the Battle of the Bridge'

Eden Hazard came off the bench to net a dramatic late equaliser to earn Chelsea a 2-2 draw with Tottenham Hotspur in a heated London derby on 2May, 2016, which was enough to earn Leicester City the unlikeliest of Premier League titles.

The Blues came into the game stranded in mid-table obscurity, while Spurs were chasing three points to keep their title hopes alive. The game started as you would expect as Spurs dominated possession, and they took the lead through Harry Kane's composed finish in the 34th minute.

It was 2-0 before half-time as Son Heung-min fired past stand-in goalkeeper Asmir Begović, but Chelsea exploded into life after the break. Their positivity began to frustrate Spurs, who committed a number of cynical fouls, and the mood only worsened after Gary Cahill poked home from a corner after 57 minutes.

25 minutes later, Hazard stepped up to put a dagger in Spurs' hearts by curling home a beautiful effort, and that's when it all exploded. Spurs picked up four yellow cards and could have had 1,000, while the game threatened to turn into an all-out brawl on a number of occasions.

The final whistle blew and Leicester were crowned champions, but that only sparked another brawl on the sidelines. Chelsea boss Guus Hiddink was pushed down some stairs but thankfully was unharmed, and the two teams were finally pulled apart and forced down the tunnel.

The match has become known as 'the Battle of the Bridge', and for good reason.

CHELSEA

Key Talking Point

​Chelsea really needed this. The 2015/16 campaign was an utter disaster for the Blues, whose season was over long before this game. José Mourinho had been sacked and players looked like they didn't want to be there. There was no optimism.

To make things worse, rivals ​Spurs were flying high and could have won the title, but Chelsea put an end to all their misery by showing up here. Weakened by ​Thibaut Courtois' suspension and ​Hazard's minor injury, Chelsea should have been blown apart, but they proved they could still hang when it mattered most. Breaking Spurs' hearts is all that mattered.

Players looked to discover the belief which had been lacking all season, and they channelled that to go on and lift the ​Premier League title in the next season.

Player Ratings

Starting XI: Begović (6); Ivanović (5), Terry (6), Cahill (7), Azpilicueta (5); Matić (4), Mikel (5); Willian (7), Fàbregas (6), Pedro (4); Costa (6).

Substitutes: Hazard (8*), Oscar (N/A).

Eden Hazard

Hazard's grace was no secret in 2016. If anything, all this game did was reaffirm his status as one of the Premier League's best players at the time, and he only played half of the match.

The dynamic of the evening was turned on its head when the brilliant Belgian was introduced at half-time. His creativity, dribbling and lightening speed were all impossible to deal with, and he looked like the kind of player who should have been lifting the league title.

He took his goal with stunning precision, playing a perfect one-two with ​Diego Costa to glide through the Spurs defence with frightening ease. He was on a different level to everyone that evening.

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR

Key Talking Point

Winning the title was always unlikely, but to officially give up the chase in such embarrassing fashion should really sting for Spurs.

Surrendering a two-goal lead against your fierce rivals is never good, but the complete lack of composure on show was borderline pathetic. Nine different players were shown yellow cards, but there could have been a whole lot of reds on top of that. Érik Lamela got away with a stamp, ​Eric Dier nearly broke Cesc Fàbregas in half and Mousa Dembélé blatantly attempted an eye-gouge on Diego Costa, but somehow they ALL survived. Oh for VAR, there would have been about an hour of added on time.

Truthfully, it was humiliating. The squad looked more like crying toddlers who struggled to deal with the fact that things had gone sour. And they wonder why they have a reputation for bottling things.

Player Ratings

Starting XI: Lloris (6); Walker (6), Alderweireld (5), Vertonghen (6), Rose (6); Dier (5), Dembélé (5); Son (7), Eriksen (6), Lamela (6); Kane (8).

Substitutes: Mason (4), Davies (N/A), Chadli (N/A).

Harry Kane

It was a bit of a hot-and-cold showing for Kane. In fact, if you ignore the madness into which this game descended, his battle with Cahill and John Terry was excellent. The Chelsea duo spent some time on top, but Kane's willpower and determination saw him dominate at times.

He took his goal with typically excellent composure, but eventually lost it as he was one of the players caught flying into dangerous tackles late on.

Things That Aged the Worst

Eric Dier was supposed to be a core part of both Spurs' and England's futures. The young midfielder looked so promising during his early time at the club, but this game definitely changed the public opinion of him.

Nowadays, he's far from a regular at club level and hasn't been involved in the England setup for a while now. Nobody really knows what he actually is these days, a centre-back or a midfielder.

Things That Aged the Best

The memes. It has got to be the memes.

Seeing Spurs finish third in a two-horse race created plenty of funny moments, but the hilarity of it all was upped even further in 2018 when Juventus defender Giorgio Chiellini ​admitted bottling things was 'the history of Tottenham'.

Nowadays, as soon as anything goes wrong for Spurs, the bottling jokes come back out, and we're all for it.

Players You Completely Forgot Existed

This match was only a few years ago, so there's not really anyone who played that day who you would have forgotten about. However, if you look on the two sides' respective benches, there are a few names who have slipped under the radar.

For Chelsea, there was backup goalkeeper Marco Amelia, defender Abdul Rahman Baba and forwards Kenedy and Bertrand Traoré, most of whom haven't been seen at Stamford Bridge since.

On the opposite bench, Spurs boasted names like Kevin Wimmer, Tom Carroll and Clinton N'Jié, so there was obviously not a lot of depth on offer back then.

What Happened Next?

​Leicester were confirmed as champions, and Spurs continued to fall apart and somehow managed to drop down to third.

Mauricio Pochettino's side came close in the following season, finally grabbing that second-placed finish which they should have managed in the 2015/16 season. Unfortunately, it was who finished first that made it even more painful.

Chelsea, who had their tenth-placed finish confirmed just weeks after this game, bounced back in emphatic fashion. They brought Antonio Conte to the dugout and leapfrogged Spurs to glory, leaving their rivals in the dust once more.