A derby that used to arouse so much passion, with fans choking on the cordite unleashed by tough guys like Chopper Harris and Dave Mackay, yesterday produced only the dampest of damp squibs. Even with six Londoners starting and significant Premiership positions at stake, the only real fire came from Chelsea's manager, Jose Mourinho, who afterwards castigated Spurs for daring to defend brilliantly.
Instead of taking Spurs' cautious, counter-attacking approach as a compliment to his much-praised Chelsea hosts, Mourinho went on the offensive. "Tottenham might as well have put the team bus in front of their goal," Mourinho said. "Sometimes when you are a big club, a very small club comes to your stadium. Tottenham got a point they shouldn't.
"We wanted to play. They didn't. We wanted to score. They didn't. Every time they just kicked the ball away. It is frustrating for me, my players, for every Chelsea supporter and for every football supporter. Because people don't pay to see one team play and the other team falling down, demanding to see the medical department.
"There were five minutes of added time at the end. For me, there should have been 15. If you had stopped the watch every time they fell down, there would have been 15 minutes. [Thimothee] Atouba was down injured for five minutes and then took five minutes to walk off the pitch. The referee has to protect against this.
"We finished with all our strikers on - Kezman, Duff, Drogba and Gudjohnsen. You don't finish with so many attackers on if the other team are also trying to win it. The next time, instead of having William Gallas and Alexei Smertin on the bench, I will have Adrian Mutu and Arjen Robben. I don't need defenders."
Mourinho did deign to praise Spurs' defensive rocks. "Ledley King, [Noureddine] Naybet and [Paul] Robinson were good," conceded the Portuguese. "But poor Jermain Defoe. Poor boy. He was just chasing the ball."
Defoe was largely isolated, lacking service, although Spurs did contrive the best chance of the game. Nine minutes after the break, the busy Simon Davies whipped in a fine cross from the right to Robbie Keane, whose neat header brought a marvellous save from Petr Cech.
It was a rare flurry of activity in the Czech goalkeeper's box; ivy could have grown up and along the woodwork such was the scarcity of visits from Spurs. "It is very difficult for a keeper who has only to sit in a chair all game because the ball does not come near him," Mourinho added.
His words were accompanied by the sound of pots and kettles arguing. Mourinho's old Porto side were not averse to time-wasting or taking the odd tumble; just ask Martin O'Neill when his Celtic team met them in the 2003 UEFA Cup final in Seville.
Jacques Santini, the Spurs head coach, responded with commendable wryness to Mourinho's accusation of spoiling tactics. "If Mr Mourinho is winning 1-0 at Highbury, it is possible he would do the same," Santini said. "I understand he is not happy because they missed a chance to go level with Arsenal at the top. When we play against a big and good team, we have to defend. When we played Norwich, it was the other way round; Norwich defended. It was very important for my young team to get a point." Particularly as Spurs' record against Chelsea is atrocious. It is now 29 league games since Tottenham last vanquished Chelsea.
Good defending deserves applause and King was again outstanding, dominating on the ground and in the air. Chelsea still had chances. Eidur Gudjohnsen hit the post. If Didier Drogba's radar had been working, or Robinson been less alert, the Chelsea striker could have had a hat-trick. Duff's introduction brought width but no end of crosses could erase the noughts.
Look at some of Mourinho's comments. What a joke. And Santini's response.