Eagerly awaited, rapturously received, Nicolas Anelka twice came within an ace of a goal and looked well capable of adding to the many he has scored in numerous cities.

This, of course, is his second sojourn in London. As a teenager he was whisked away for nothing by Arsenal, exploiting the rules then in force, from an infuriated Paris Saint-Germain. Later, the Gunners casually threw PSG £500,000, subsequently pocketing £22.3m when they sold a dissident Anelka to Real Madrid. Now, aged 28, he cost Chelsea £15m; mere chicken feed to their billionaire owner Roman Abramovich.

Anelka seems a much calmer figure now he is no longer handled, as he was at Highbury, by his two belligerent brothers as agents. In north London he had clashes with club and colleagues. And over the years, despite such splendid performances as that against England at Wembley in 1999 when he scored the goals for France in a 2-0 victory and had another dubiously disallowed, he has been in and out of the France team; all too often in conflict with the managers. Now Chelsea have become his fifth English club after spells at Manchester City, Liverpool and, somewhat surprisingly, Bolton.

Yesterday, after 58 minutes, he replaced the Peru international striker Claudio Pizarro, who had been playing a good deal more effectively than in recent games. Avram Grant, the Chelsea manager, said afterwards that Pizarro was injured. “We didn’t plan to use him [Anelka] because he didn’t train with the team but it’s good to have him.” Indeed it was; whether or not he had trained, he looked as sharp and incisive an opportunist as ever.

Scarcely had he taken the field when the always exuberant and effective Chelsea right-back Juliano Belletti found Shaun Wright-Phillips. On it went to Anelka, who shot hard and low only for the Spurs keeper, Radek Cerny, preferred for the second time in a week to the erratic England international Paul Robinson, to hurl himself at the ball to make the save.

On 90 minutes, Anelka had a higher shot which came back from the underside of the bar after an attempt by Wright-Phillips was only half cleared by Spurs. Anelka could scarcely have come closer to a goal.

Wright-Phillips, highly praised by Grant for his performance in central midfield and, in the last 10 minutes, up front, deserved to score the second goal on 80 minutes. This time, it was a throw-in by Belletti that Joe Cole neatly and expertly moved on to Wright-Phillips, who shot past Cerny and inside the left-hand post.

Chelsea’s first goal, after 19 minutes, was spectacular. A glorious right-footed shot from 35 yards by Belletti, who had already looked sprightly and adventurous, ripped past a hapless Cerny and into the Tottenham net.

Spurs, despite the presence at one time or another of so many noted strikers, seldom seemed likely to score but 10 minutes after the first Chelsea goal, they almost did so. When Aaron Lennon crossed incisively from the right, the other Spurs flank man, Steed Malbranque, closed in from the left to hit a ferocious shot that Petr Cech did well to reach at full stretch.

Malbranque, alas, did not survive the whole match. Prone as he sometimes is to rash tackles, he perpetrated one in the second half that gained him a yellow card that might even have merited a darker colour. When in the second half he seemed likely to receive a second yellow but escaped with a lecture from the referee, Tottenham pulled him off and substituted him with his fellow Frenchman, the rangy and committed Adel Taarabt.

With so many players off to take part in the African Cup of Nations, including Didier Drogba of the Ivory Coast, who still insists he wants to leave Chelsea, Grant had to make a number of enforced changes. As he pointed out, his Ukraine international striker Andriy Shevkenko, after seeming at long last to recover something of his old form, will be out for some time. Certainly the acquisition of Anelka will be of enormous benefit, even when Drogba returns, and whether or not he stays.

Tottenham were conspicuously lacking two regular, suspended, midfield players in Tom Huddlestone and the gifted and elusive England international Jermaine Jenas. Their replacements, young Kevin-Prince Boateng and Jamie O’Hara, did what they could, but against such a populous and talented Chelsea midfield that was inevitably limited.

Shortly before he was substituted, Boateng did, from the right, put over a high insidious cross that was missed by friend and foe.

O’Hara, whose substitution preceded that of Boateng by seven minutes, had just been booked and was quite properly taken off for his own protection, not to mention the team’s.

Tottenham’s Spanish manager, Juande Ramos, felt it was “a very balanced game” and that Tottenham had been unfortunate to lose. Both Chelsea goals, he emphasised, had been scored from outside the area, though this hardly seemed sufficient mitigation. As for Grant, he told us how happy he was that Chelsea were now playing positive football, passing the ball successfully rather than hitting it long. Rather like the usual criticism of his more flamboyant and voluble predecessor, Jose Mourinho.

Almost at the end, Joe Cole, busy and effective all afternoon in a right-flank position, with the fit-again Frenchman Florent Malouda on the left, had a low shot which Cerny dived to turn past the right-hand post. By then, the game was emphatically lost and won. And Anelka looked as if he could and would win Chelsea many others.

Player ratings

Chelsea: Cech 7, Belletti 8, Carvalho 6, Alex 6, A Cole 6, Malouda 6 (Bridge 84min), Makelele 6, Ballack 6, Wright-Phillips 7 (Sidwell 90min), J Cole 7, Pizarro 7 (Anelka 58min, 7)

Tottenham: Cerny 7, Chimbonda 6, Dawson 6, King 7, Lee 6, Lennon 6, O’Hara 6 (Defoe 77min), Boateng 6 (Kaboul 84min), Malbranque 6 (Taarabt 59min, 6), Keane 6, Berbatov 6

Star man: Juliano Belletti (Chelsea)
Scorers: Chelsea: Belletti 19, Wright-Phillips 80

Referee: A Wiley
Attendance: 41,777