Spurs V Chelsea: Match Report
In a north London derby that rarely disappoints, Pochettino looked to end his former side's unbeaten streak as his Chelsea side visited the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Chelsea was all over the place in the first 10 minutes and had no control with loose passes, poor first touches and a backline that lacked any conviction. Due to their early woes, they conceded in just the 6th minute of the game. Kulusevski took the shot, but it was Colwill's failure to close him down that led to a deflection which beat a helpless Sanchez. They could have added to their tally, but Son was caught offside when Johnson played him the ball after some lovely control in the middle of the park from Sarr, highlighting his physicality and quality on the ball.
The game began to unravel when Udogie threw in a tackle with both feet and studs up, but the lack of contact made with Sterling meant only a yellow was issued for the offence. This was only the beginning of this London Derby. Sterling receives the ball and drives into the box, his initial shot bounces off Porro and back to him and he wriggles through the tightest of gaps to score for Chelsea. Unfortunately for him, the ball bounced off his arm and the goal was disallowed. In the build-up to that goal, Romero reverted to type and kicked Colwill in the back of the calf and made no attempt to play the ball. In my mind, that should be viewed as violent conduct and should have resulted in a red card.
To add to the drama, Chelsea went and scored again through Moises Caicedo from outside the box and into the bottom corner to put them level. Yet, it was immediately flagged as offside. VAR confirmed the offside and whilst analysing the build-up, found a challenge from Romero on Enzo in the box. He went for the ball, but the follow-through ended in his studs up on the Chelsea man’s shin and Michael Oliver eventually showed him a red card and awarded Chelsea the penalty. Cole Palmer, now the designated penalty taker for Chelsea stepped up. Vicario guessed the right way and got a hand to the ball but only enough to push it onto the post and into the back of the net.
When it rains it pours for Tottenham, two of their star signings both pulled up injured. Micky Van De Ven went down with a hamstring injury and Maddison had discomfort too. They had to play without their two starting centre-backs and their creative outlet for the remainder of the game.
The second half was not as exciting as the first. With 10 men, Spurs played a very high line and Son looked to hit Chelsea on the counter. Udogie, already on a yellow, poked the ball away from Palmer and chased it down, throwing in another tackle on Sterling and failing to get the ball. As soon as he committed to it, he knew he would be seeing red. There will be real issues for Postecoglou now, with Romero, Van ve Ven, Maddison and Udgoie all out, players he has entrusted and built the team around, now it will be a question of squad depth.
It took for Spurs to go down to 9 men, holding the highest line possible for Chelsea to finally get ahead. Sterling breaks the line and squares it to Jackson for an all-important goal. For Jackson’s second, it was Gallagher who broke the line and squared it to him for a first-time finish. James delivered a sumptuous ball over the Spurs backline and Jackson was the quickest to the ball and left 1 on 1, after a shimmy Vicario hit the floor and Jackson went around him to seal his first Premier League hat trick.
Despite Chelsea coming out on top of that game and scoring 4 goals, they did not look even slightly convincing. If Spurs sat deep, I’m not sure if Chelsea would have had the quality going forward to get them over the line. It took them almost the entirety of the second half to figure out how to expose the high line of Spurs, but once they did the game was over. The red cards caused such an imbalance that it's difficult to say that Chelsea played well. When all 22 players were on the pitch, initially they were outclassed. However, they did grow into the game and showed a strength of character alongside persistence, in spite of their numerous disallowed goals. Jackson, although he scored a hat trick, did not overly impress me. I don't believe he will be the solution for Chelsea's ongoing striker issues, the runs that he makes aren’t inspiring and he isn’t a particularly potent finisher either.
Romero, despite all his plaudits this season for reinventing himself as a calm figure, has gone against that by producing 2 red card offences in 1 game. Early on Spurs were really good. Their midfield was more physical and fluid, with Udogie and Porro flying forward to help link everything together, Maddison was always floating in space and their wingers had an early impact too. Vicario has been exceptional so far this season and that game was no different despite conceding 4. He was quick to shut players down, acted as a sweeper behind his defenders, made some hugely important saves when they mattered most and almost saved the penalty. This game could have caused the demise of Spurs. They no longer sit atop the table and have got four key players who aren’t available for selection. With Emerson, Eric Dier and potentially Ashley Phillips in the back 4, are Tottenham going to be able to play the same brand of football?
