On Sunday evening Stamford Bridge hosted the fourth meeting between Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur in the span of just one month. The Premier League’s 23rd match-week fixture gave the Blues the opportunity to say they have beaten Spurs four times in a season, the last time coming in the 1991/92 season.
Thomas Tuchel made only one change to the team that drew with Brighton Hove and Albion on Tuesday, bringing in Malang Sarr at the expense of Marcos Alonso, while Spurs made several changes to the starting eleven that travelled to the King Power Stadium, with Emerson Royal, Sergio Reguilon, Oliver Skipp and Lucas Moura making way for Matt Doherty, Ryan Sessegnon, Eric Dier and Steven Bergwijn, who miraculously scored twice in the extra time to gift Spurs three points against Leicester City.
Both teams have dropped their favoured back three shapes and turned to four at the back. This is the first time Antonio Conte has moved away from a back three since his title-winning Chelsea side were three goals behind against Arsenal at half-time in 2016. Spurs set up in a 4-4-2, the Italian planning to control Chelsea’s attacking full-backs by introducing Doherty and Sessegnon.
Although not as surprising as Conte dropping the back three, Tuchel also shifted to a 4-3-3, having already given signals he wanted to drop the previous shape since the day of his arrival at Chelsea.
His first plan failing before the match had even kicked off, Conte’s men struggled throughout the game.
Chelsea were able to take control of the ball against a Spurs side not particularly strong at pressing high. They easily beat Spurs’ low intensity press time after time with their backline’s ability to play the ball out under pressure, with the help of master of this work Jorginho and the likes of Mateo Kovacic and Mason Mount also dropping deep to get involved in the build-up. Placing his wingers as wide as possible, Tuchel instructed Kovacic and Mount in particular to make runs out to the sideline when the wingers had the ball.
Mount made this run into the wide areas every time he saw Hakim Ziyech with the ball out wide, helping Chelsea to rapidly progress through the second area of the pitch. With Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg being forced to follow Mount into deep areas, he left space for Jorginho and Cesar Azpilicueta to use, causing Tottenham to get overrun in those central areas, making it hard for them to limit Chelsea.
The first chance of the game for Chelsea came just after kick-off. The aforementioned run of Mount caught Spurs cold, with the midfielder able to cross brilliantly, but Romelu Lukaku, in questionable form, failed to hit the ball cleanly.
Just three minutes later Chelsea proved dangerous again when Ziyech’s cross to the far post from the right ended with Callum Hudson-Odoi’s mishit header, under pressure by Japhet Tanganga.
Spurs’ first presence in the game was felt when Harry Winks got loose in transition, dribbled and shot with his wrong foot near the Chelsea box, with Kepa Arrizabalaga saving easily.
Conte dropped his favoured three-at-the-back scheme when defending, but when Spurs had the ball they showed similarities to the Italian’s usual build up play. With Eric Dier moving wider, Davinson Sanchez staying central and Hojbjerg dropping to the left as Ben Davies cleared the space to push forward, Spurs formed a makeshift back three to help Conte’s men play out from the back. With Winks’ capability to play in front of the defence, Tottenham were able to beat Chelsea’s press from time to time.
As they gained confidence, Spurs seemed to lose discipline. In the 32nd minute Hojbjerg left his central post in order to press high, which left Mount’s deep run untracked. Mount got the ball, completed a give-and-go with Ziyech then crossed brilliantly again, which, again, Lukaku failed to hit cleanly.
Thiago Silva saw the first card of the game after his challenge on Bergwijn, showing no intent to play the ball. The Brazilian stopped Spurs’ break and accepted the consequences. In the 37th minute Tanganga was penalised for similar reasons, bringing down Hudson Odoi to stop Chelsea breaking forward.
The 38th minute of the game brought Spurs’ second chance. With a deep pass from Hojbjerg, Sessegnon entered Chelsea’s box from the left side, but he was unable to produce either a decent cross or shot, and Chelsea’s defence saw the ball out for a goal kick.
Just two minutes later, England captain Harry Kane scored for Spurs from a low cross by Sessegnon, only for it to be disallowed by a very controversial decision from referee Paul Tierney. Thiago Silva felt a hand from Kane and dropped to the ground with no significant contact, seemingly to get away from a disadvantageous position. Kane shot past Kepa unmarked, but it was disallowed by Tierney. Jorginho was punished for his challenge in the process, where he tried and failed to stop Bergwijn’s dribbling and thus Spurs’ break. The first half’s five remaining minutes didn’t bring any more excitement from either team.
Half-time brought no changes for both teams, personnel nor tactical. After just two minutes of the second half, Hudson-Odoi took on Tanganga, who, on a yellow card, couldn’t prevent Hudson-Odoi’s dribbling. The 21 year-old dribbled for 30 yards then found Ziyech, who scored a screamer, finding the top left hand corner with his magical left foot, which no keeper on Earth would stand a chance against. The Moroccan scored his third goal in the Premier League this season, all in the last seven games. Just two minutes later he tried his luck from distance again with the outside of his foot, although this time Hugo Lloris did brilliantly to keep it out.
In the 53rd minute Mount again posed a handful for Spurs’ defence, taking the ball on the half-turn and playing a pass wide, then shooting when he received it back again, but he failed to hit the target and saw the ball go above Lloris’ goal.
Just two minutes later, at a free-kick conceded by Dier fouling Hudson-Odoi, Chelsea twisted another dagger in Spurs’ hearts when by doubling their lead, showing themselves to be set-piece specialists. Thiago Silva got to the end of set-piece crosses throughout the game, and this time it proved beneficial. He headed the ball into the Spurs net from Mount’s brilliant cross. The centre-back scored his third goal in the Premier League this season, two of them against Spurs.
Right after going 2-0 down, Conte decided that enough was enough and made changes, bringing on Lucas Moura and Oliver Skipp at the expense of Sessegnon and Tanganga. This was a tacit admission that his plans before the game hadn’t panned out and he needed to do something in order to change the course of the game. Tottenham transformed their 4-4-2 into a 4-3-3, where newly-introduced Skipp joined the now three-man midfield and Lucas Moura joined Kane and Bergwijn to create a more powerful attacking force.
Hojbjerg continued his duty to fill in for Davies as he pushed high and wide, while Skipp and Winks were employed by the Italian to create more passing options for Spurs’ backline when building from the back. With Ziyech following Davies into those more advanced areas, he failed to provide the necessary support for Chelsea’s pressing line to stop Spurs playing out. Even though Mount and Kovacic were more than willing to chase Skipp and Winks in order to prevent them from getting involved with the build-up, Spurs had enough to beat Chelsea’s press, which dropped their intensity with a two-goal lead.
As Conte’s men lead the league in points won from losing positions, coming from behind in eight Premier League matches, the game wasn’t finished for either team. Just two minutes after those changes, Kane dropped deeper to the left flank, where he took on Ziyech and Azpilicueta and crossed. Skipp headed the ball down perfectly for Bergwijn in Chelsea’s box, but the Dutchman failed to produce a decent shot and the ball rolled into the hands of Arrizabalaga.
Search for a goal that could bring them back into the contest again, Spurs pressed high. Their change to a 4-3-3 saw them forming a three-man pressing line, consisting of Kane, Bergwijn and Moura, that tried to limit Chelsea’s backline from playing forward balls, while Winks tried to mark Jorginho – the main recipient of Chelsea’s balls into midfield. Hojbjerg and Skipp followed Mount and Kovacic deeper into Chelsea’s half of the pitch, where they succeeded partially when pressing, but the individual qualities of Chelsea’s players allowed them to play long but precise passes to centre forward Lukaku, who came to life in the second half. His physical gifts enabled him to hold up the ball and help Chelsea get into Spurs’ half when they were struggling to beat the press. In the 69th minute Lukaku turned well from a pass played by Kovacic, entered the Spurs’ box, yet failed to shoot the ball past Lloris.
Three minutes later, Hojbjerg showed amazing vision to release Doherty. If the Irishman was able to reach to the ball, an easy cutback would have made the game 2-1, but his speed couldn’t quite match the weight of the pass.
Tuchel made his first involvement in the game in the 73rd minute, bringing on N’Golo Kante for the fatigued Jorginho. Four minutes later, the Frenchman’s dynamism resulted in a pass to Mount from Ziyech, forcing Lloris into leaving his goal to narrow the shooting angle. The spoils were recycled by Azpilicueta, whose dribble into the box gave the Blues their tenth corner to Spurs’ one.
In the 84th minute, Kane’s pass to the edge of the box created another decent opportunity for Spurs, with Bergwijn having to choose between either letting the ball run for the unmarked Skipp, who had a clear path to goal, or shooting himself – he chose the latter, again to little effect. Two minutes later, Spurs’ pressure almost panned out, when Kane got on the end of Winks’ corner, requiring an amazing save from Kepa to keep it level.
A minute later Tuchel made his second substitute of the game, bringing on Marcos Alonso for Hudson-Odoi, and, in the 89th minute, Conte took off Winks for Bryan Gil.
Sadly, Stamford Bridge saw Ziyech have to exit the game due to injury, with a tight hamstring in extra time. Thanks to Tuchel’s plan of running the Chelsea attack through him, the Moroccan had 96 touches, a game-high 34 passes into the final third, eight duels won, ten final third entries and ten crosses into the Spurs box. Topping it with an amazing goal, he rightfully claimed the Man of the Match Award rightfully, with his great current form helping Chelsea to go into the winter break with a boosted morale, beating Conte’s Spurs four times in a row.
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