Match Day Thread Tottenham Hotspur v Chelsea

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Saturday 22nd February 12.30pm
Premier League
Stamford Bridge​

A disappointing result and performance against Leipzig has left us with an uphill battle in Germany.
No time to mope though, as we have a short trip to Fulham to face the side that's directly above us in the league.
Chelsea had no midweek game prior to this fixture, but face Bayern on Tuesday.
It's a big match for both teams and our squad is looking rather depleted going into it.
Can Mourinho find some way of making it work or will he lose again to his protege?

It's Frank Lampard's first season managing his old club and they started the campaign with a transfer ban.
That tempered expectations somewhat and their fanbase was always going to be patient with him, anyway.
A 4-0 drubbing by Man Utd on the opening day didn't settle their nerves, but the scoreline was flattering.
The next run of fixtures went far more favourably, as they lost only once in 11 games and won 8 of them.
They rose to third in the table and progressed through a tricky Champions League group, too.

The tide changed dramatically for them in late November.
They struggled badly for a little over a month and lost 5 out of 7 fixtures, though they did beat us in that run.
A couple more wins either side of the new year helped to stabalise them, but they've failed to win since.
Draws against Arsenal and Leicester sandwiched losses to Newcastle and Man Utd.
A transferless January also mystified some, as they overturned their ban for nothing.

Lampard is in desperate need of a couple of results this week.
Wins over us and Bayern would really ease any pressure that he might be under.
It would also give them breathing space over the pack of sides chasing their current position.
4th would guarantee Champions League football next season, without having to consider City.
Their ban may not be enforced or it could be postponed, as we all know how these things go.

Our trip to Stamford Bridge last season saw a tired side put in an uninspired performance.
Both teams were reacting to defeats, but ours seemed to affect us far more.
Neither team created many chances, despite Chelsea largely looking like the better side.
Pedro gave them the lead just before the hour and we never looked like drawing level.
Trippier's own goal late on confirmed the result, as we lost 2-0 in a game with only one shot on target overall:

The game earlier this season was a very poor performance and an equally poor result.
Willian gave them an early lead and we created virtually nothing to challenge it.
A Gazzaniga brain fart at the end of the first half gifted them a penalty and the Brazilian got his brace.
Son stupidly kicked out at Rudiger in the second half and was dismissed, as the defender feigned injury.
He then went on to make accusations of racism, which have so far proved to be unfounded:

Kane, Son and Sissoko miss out with long-term injuries, while Foyth is a doubt and probably won't take part.
Kante and van Ginkel are out for the hosts, who also have a group of players who are doubts.
Loftus-Cheek, Pulisic, Abraham, Christensen and Hudson-Odoi all face tests.
Neither side has any suspensions.

Lineups for each side's last league game:

Spurs: Lloris; Aurier, Sanchez, Alderweireld, Davies; Dier, Winks; Moura, Alli, Bergwijn; Son.
Subs: Gazzaniga, Vertonghen, Tanganga, Skipp, Fernandes, Lo Celso, Ndombele.
League form: LLDWWW.

Chelsea: Caballero; James, Rudiger, Christensen, Azpilicueta; Kovacic, Jorginho, Kante; Pedro, Batshuayi, Willian.
Subs: Kepa, Zouma, Tomori, Alonso, Barkley, Mount, Giroud.
League form: DWLDDL.

Ref: Michael ****ing Oliver. VAR: David Coote.

TV: BT Sport 1.

How would you like to line up for this one and what would you change from the Leipzig game?
Would you stick with much of the same lineup, make a few changes or go for a wholesale switch?
Which system and tactics would you use and what are you expecting Chelsea to go with?

 

I still have recurring nightmares about that Trippier own goal.

 

Line up with 3/5 at the back. It is the only way to compensate for a lack of attacking players.
We saw on Wednesday when we were left with one attacking player on the bench.

Lloris
Aurier, JT, Toby, Jan, Davies
Gio, Winks, N'Dombele (if he can play 70 minutes)/ Gedson
Lucas, Bergwijn

 

I'd be amazed if Davies can manage a third game in quick succession after so long out. Aurier also needs to be dropped/rested but will we rotate them both? I'd like to see either a 433 or 343...

Hugo
Tanganga Dave Toby Davies
Gedson Winks Lo Celso
Lucas Alli Bergwijn

Or

Hugo
Tanganga Dave Toby
Aurier Winks Lo Celso Sess
Lucas Alli Bergwijn

 

ESPN predicting an ugly game. What do they know that we don't?

 

Must be Tevez and Beardsley making a comeback

 

He looks so relaxed it's disturbing!

 

I suspect that there were some pre-conference jokes that we missed out on.

 

He's been here 3 months and 1 day and...

Jose Mourinho says Tottenham top-four finish would be his biggest achievement
https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/jose-mourinho-tottenham-biggest-achievement-a4368406.html

...Levy's broken him already.

 

His last "greatest achievement" saw him finish nineteen points behind The Sheikh Mansour Team

We're currently fourteen points behind them, so technically he could top that...

 

Hugo
Aurier, Dave, Toby, Tanganga
Gio, Winks, Tanguy
Lamela, Lucas, Bergwijn

 

The Cave will be open from 7.00am tomorrow, early bird special on breakfast.

 

The Cave! Brings back memories of the 70's.We used to use a working men's club off Enfield Highway on a Sunday night. A few games of "BINGO" then off to a pub along Turkey Street,now,sadly,long gone.Can't remember the name of the club's road.Think it went down to a small arms factory passing a railway station. Isn't it bad when the memory goes? Good fun though. Then a wait for trains.Me going one way and the boys going back to Tottenham. Sometimes the train was cancelled.....this did not make us happy,it was usually the last one on either side!

 

Is he telling us this is the worse team he's ever had?

 

Ordnance road (the working mens' club is still there) .


"Isn't it bad when the memory goes?"

You remembered 50000 things about the road, other than its name.

< sort yourself out >

 

I worry that this is the beginning of slating the team and what Pochettino did prior to his arrival.
He did this at United it went south pretty rapidly after.

I also think it tells the team they are too ****e for top four...and this'll dent their already weak confidence.

Or maybe I am over thinking things

 

I don't know about his greatest achievement being a 4th place finish...if he could keep his gob shut for 5 minutes, that'd outstrip overtaking the Mousers and winning this year's title.

I do know that it'll be a ****ing miracle if we finish in the top 4 playing without a right back and with Eric Dier in the team...without being able to score 3 goals at the other end...

...so, we're ****ed.

 

At the risk of getting yelled at, once again I'll bring up Dortmund's front three that doesn't feature a striker, as it has Marco Reus through the middle with Jadon Sancho and Thorgan Hazard either side of him (with Erling Haaland usually coming on for Hazard to bang in a couple more to add to the tally)

So the question is, is there any way we can replicate this without things becoming one hell of an aggravating experience? And the answer is...complicated

For the most obvious reason why it's complicated, Lo Celso could certainly play through the middle, as there were times last season at Betis where he would play in the second striker role sneaking into the box while the defenders were presumably pissing themselves laughing that Betis had a bloke named Moron up front, in other words the role Dele Alli used to perform for us when we played 4231...but the problem is that, if we moved him up front right now, that would scupper any creativity we had in midfield so nobody would actually be getting the ball to him

Similar can be said with Ndombele, who at times last season at Lyon played at the tip of their midfield as they played 4231 as he had Tousart and Aouar doing the central midfield work, and he has a damn good shot on him as well as the physicality to scrap with defenders while creating space for Bergwijn or Lucas to make runs into the box...but the problem is that we can't exactly expect him to play up front every game due to his fitness and injury issues in recent months, so for example during the ten day spell at the start of March where we play Wolves, Norwich, Burnley and The Poor Man's Monster Energy Leipzig we'd probably only be able to reliably play him up front in two of those games

And that leaves us with Dele, who certainly has the timing and instincts to be a handful in the area...but he was just as wasteful as Son against Villa, and while he had an upturn in form shortly after Steptonho arrived he's been pretty dire in the last few weeks that makes him a hardly enticing potential solution through the middle