Tottenham Hotspur found themselves on the wrong end of a seven-goal thriller on Sunday afternoon, falling to a 4-3 defeat at home to Chelsea.
Spurs romped into a commanding 2-0 lead but – not for the first time this season – had their stranglehold of the contest wrestled away. A combination of Tottenham’s collective incompetence and Chelsea’s rediscovered composure saw the visitors rattle in four goals.
Son Heung-min’s late strike to complete a ding-dong affair was too little too late for a Spurs side slumped in the bottom half of the table. Chelsea, in stark contrast, have closed the gap behind Liverpool to just four points.
How the game unfolded
Right from kick-off, there was a frenzied edge to this London derby. Beyond the utter chaos which unfolded on the pitch, the crowd had a crazed glint, heaving paper missiles from the stands as soon as any blue shirt came within ten yards of the pitch’s perimeter.
Marc Cucurella couldn’t blame a stray scrap of cardboard for twice slipping over in the buildup to Tottenham’s quick-fire double. Brennan Johnson gobbled up the first loose ball while Chelsea‘s left-back was left sniffing the turf, firing a cross into the box for Dominic Solanke to stab in.
Within a matter of minutes, Dejan Kulusevski made it 2-0 from another inadvertent Cucurella assist. The Swede tiptoed along the top of the box, delaying just long enough before reversing his shot beyond Robert Sanchez’s helpless dive.
Jadon Sancho halved the deficit inside the opening 17 minutes with a superb strike from the edge of the box, but the drama kept on pouring out of every orifice of this game.
Tottenham had the better of a chaotic opening 45 minutes, but Chelsea roared back after the break. Establishing a stranglehold of possession in the opposition half, Moises Caicedo won a penalty on the hour mark. After evading serious punishment for a rash tackle of his own, the energetic midfielder benefitted from Yves Bissouma’s reckless lunge, earning a spot-kick which Cole Palmer coolly converted.
The reinvigorated Enzo Fernandez fired Chelsea in front for the first time on Sunday, walking onto a deflected Palmer shot which he blasted beyond Fraser Forster.
Spurs kept on surging forward at every given opportunity, desperate to rectify another second-half implosion. However, the hosts only opened themselves up to the counter-attack. Pape Sarr was caught chasing one such break when he hacked at Palmer in the box for Chelsea’s second penalty of the game. Palmer brushed himself down to dispatch the spot kick with a wonderfully cocky dink.
Son reduced the arrears in the sixth minute of stoppage time, but couldn’t help his side avoid their seventh defeat of the league season already.
Check out the player ratings from Tottenham vs Chelsea here.
While Sunday’s seven-goal thriller was a spectacle for the neutral to savour, it was all too familiar for the majority of the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Ahead of kick-off, Ange Postecoglou laid out the sequence of events which have all-too-often defined a Spurs defeat: “Starting well enough but then allowing the opposition to get a grip on it by either conceding a sloppy goal… or not taking our opportunities.” The same “cycle”, as Postecoglou calls it, repeated itself against Chelsea.
The forthright manager did not have another heated exchange with supporters on Sunday afternoon, but that same sense of frustration will have permeated through a fanbase which may be losing its patience with Postecoglou.
Albert Einstein’s definition of insanity was doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Postecoglou could be in danger of following that sequence of events – if he hasn’t already – after insisting post-match: “It was good enough to get us ahead in the game so I am not sure why we should change our approach.”
While Cole Palmer will naturally steal the spotlight, Maresca was keen to praise Chelsea’s collective. “For me, the headline today is for all the team,” the Italian insisted. However, the head coach deserves some praise himself.
After a wild first half which thrilled neutrals and shortened the lifespan of both managers, Maresca acted decisively. Shifting Moises Caicedo back into midfield and bringing on Malo Gusto at right-back gave Chelsea a newfound sense of control. Up until the 89th minute, the Blues limited Tottenham to just two off target shots in the second half while scoring three goals themselves.
“Not ideal” was the understated way Postecoglou described Cristian Romero’s enforced substitution. With 15 minutes on the clock and Spurs 2-0 up, the World Cup winner limped off to be replaced by Radu Dragusin. Within a matter of seconds, Jadon Sancho cut onto his right foot, taking advantage of the space afforded to him by a retreating Dragusin and drilling in Chelsea’s first of an eventful afternoon.
Micky van de Ven was a surprise starter next to Romero. The jet-heeled Dutchman was making his first appearance in six weeks and lasted until the 79th minute, but also had to sheepishly amble off the pitch clutching his hamstring. Coupled with Brennan Johnson’s fitness-related removal, the impact of this Chelsea defeat could reverberate beyond Sunday afternoon.
Maresca was a barrel of laughs at the full-time whistle, jostling and joking with Marc Cucurella long after his boot debacle of the first ten minutes. However, the Spaniard’s footwear was not the only factor behind a blunder-ridden sequence which undermines Chelsea’s title bid.
Goalkeeper Robert Sanchez misplaced almost half of his passes (19 of 40) while the always uncertain Benoit Badiashile didn’t offer much more assurance.
With the contest poised at 2-2, Chelsea’s entire backline switched off. Pedro Neto rose his arm to call for an offside and turned his back on the play while Son Heung-min hared towards goal, arguing with the referee while the onside Tottenham forward fired wide.
Chelsea are second in the table and Liverpool’s closest challengers, but Maresca’s well-documented dismissal of his side’s title challenge will not change based on Sunday’s display. As the Italian coach pointed out post-game: “Arsenal, [Man] City and Liverpool probably don’t slide – like Cucurella did.”
