Old man Samuel Eto'o struck the opening goal that opened the floodgates as Chelsea humiliated their north London rivals Spurs 4-0 at Stamford Bridge this evening.
Eto'o, who is officially 32 years old, but was described jokingly by manager Jose Mourinho as perhaps a bit older took full advantage of a horror back pass by Jan Vertonghen in the 56 minute to cooly slot the ball under the body of goalkeeper Hugo Lloris.
The Cameroon hit man then mocked his manager by staging a creaking old man walk to the corner flag, by way of a goal celebration.
Four minutes later and Eto'o won a penalty aft being bundled over by Younes Kaboul. The France centre-back was duly red-carded and Eden Hazard converted the spot kick with consummate ease.
Substitute Demba Ba then hit twice in a two-minute spell at the end of the match capitalising on sloppy defending by Sandro and then another embarrassing wayward back pass, this time by Kyle Walker.
The Blues are now seven points clear of chasing Liverpool and Arsenal who, along with Manchester City have games in hand over the Blues, but it's only City who, if they win their catch-up matches can overtake the west Londoners.
. But Eto'o should not even had been on the pitch.
He was initially named as a substitute.
Eto'o came off the bench before kick-off to replace Fernando Torres who injured his groin in the warm-up.
The Cameroon hit man almost scored with his first touch on 40 seconds when he beat the offside trap but was hacked down by Hugo Lloris. To add insult to literally Injury he was adjudged to have been offside.
Eto'o was treated for his injury and thankfully returned to the front line.
But Chelsea should have scored on four minutes when they cut through the heart of the Spurs defence, leaving Eden Hazard free. But the Belgium midfielder failed to hit home from just inside the penalty area, instead shouted inched high and wide of an empty net.
With Spurs at their best on the counter-attack, Petr Cech was forced into a brilliant diving save, on 22minutes, diving to his left to thwart Sandro's sizzling left-foot volley from 20 yards out.
Matic had a reasonable half-chance on 29 minutes, getting his head to a deep Frank Lampard free-kick, that too went just wide of Hugo Lloris's goal.
Jose Mourinho replaced lethargic Lampard at half-time, with youthful Brazilian playmaker Oscar, Spurs remained unchanged.
Andre Schurrle cut onto the byline three minutes into the restart and sent over a fine chipped, right-footer, which was just too high for the in-running Eto'o.
Young's Kaboul forced Cech into another save from a corner, but after out jumping John Terry, the centre-back could not generate enough power in his header to trouble the goalkeeper too much.
Within a sensational four minute spell, the home side scored twice.
The first on 56 minutes saw Samuel Eto'o took full advantage of a terrible back pass from under pressure Jan Vertonghen, who in the left back position, found himself charged down by Schurrle.
The Belgium slipped and trying to recover attempted the risky pass to his goalkeeper.
The wayward effort was capitalised on by Eto'o who raced clear and tucked the ball under Llori's body, despite the late attention of Michael Dawson.
Eto'o, 32, then, in his goal celebration, mocked his manager who recently questioned the age of the striker. Eto'o walked gingerly to the corner flag, hunched over and pretending to act like an old man. It was Eto'o 300th club goal.
Then, on 60 minutes, the visitors were reduced to 10 men when Hazard's brilliant left wing cross was picked up by Eto'o deep inside the penalty area. Under a clumsy challenge from Kaboul, the Cameroon striker hit the deck.
Referee Michael Oliver pointed to the penalty spot and showed Kaboul the red card.
Up stepped Hazard to plonk the ball past Lloris.
Chelsea really should have hit their third with eight minutes remaining. Not for the first time, Hazard cut the Spurs defence to pieces with a sublime through ball.
This time, substitute Willian was on the end of it. He cut the ball square to Oscar who inexplicably for one so talented skied the ball from just outside the penalty area.
Number three duly came with three minutes left. Again a superb pass by Hazard, fed Oscar who arrowed the ball into the Spurs area, Sandro failed to clear, In fact he fell over and substitute Demba Ba was on hand to slot home.
Misery was heaped upon miserly two minutes later when Llois kicked the ball out. Bizarrely Kyle Walker headed the ball back to him. Ba. Was on hand again to get the ball ahead of the goalkeeper and cooly tucked the ball into the empty net, to heap further embarrassment on their north London rivals.
Teams: Chelsea, Cech, Ivanovic, Ramires, Lampard, Torres, Schurrle, Hazard, Matic, Cahill, Terry, Azpilicueta
Up Subs, Schwarzer, Oscar, Mikel, Ba, Willian, Eto'o, Kalas
Spurs, Lloris, Walker, Kaboul, Vertonghen, Lennon, Adebayor, Naughton, Dawson. Sigurdsson, Sandro, Bentaleb
Subs, Friedel, Paulinho, Soldado, Townsend, Chadli, Fryers, Kane
Referee, Michael Oliver
Ends