please log in to view this image Chelsea visit Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane on Thursday 22nd December the 17th round of the 2011-12 Premier League season (16th game for Spurs). Chelsea come into the game in 4th place on 32 points with Spurs in 3rd place on 34 points. This will be the 186th time the two teams have met. Chelsea are one of the few major English football teams who never played Spurs during the Victorian Era, as they were only founded in 1905 and were admitted into the Second Division of the Football League without ever having played a match before. This was due to the rivalry that existed at the time between the Football League and the Southern League with the former desperate to make in-roads into the lucrative markets which London and the South-East provided. The first meeting between Spurs and Chelsea was a friendly played at Stamford Bridge in February 1908 and ended in a 2-2 draw. The same venue saw the first Football League Division One encounter in December 1909 and Chelsea won that match 2-1. The return fixture at White Hart Lane was won by Spurs 2-1 and in between those two matches the clubs met in the old second round (today's fourth round) of the FA Cup in a match which Spurs won 1-0 at Stamford Bridge. Spurs and Chelsea would meet for another three seasons in the First Division before the outbreak of World War One with honours even at two wins for Spurs, two wins for Chelsea and two drawn matches. 14 games were played during the First World War and these featured many players who 'guested' for both clubs. Five of Tottenham's "home" games were played at Arsenal's Highbury Stadium. Spurs and Chelsea had finished in the bottom two places in the last season of the First Division when war broke out and when football resumed in 1919, the Division was expanded from 20 to 22 teams. Arsenal engineered a 'promotion' to the First Division at Spurs' expense but Tottenham easilly won the Division Two Championship and the next season had two emphatic wins over Chelsea 5-0 at home and 4-0 at the Bridge. The teams would meet for another five seasons in the First Division and two seasons in the Second Division during the inter-war period - season 1929-30 was the last time Spurs & Chelsea played League games outside the Top Flight of English Football. Spurs only lost two of those 14 League matches. During World War Two, 16 games were played between Spurs and Chelsea Spurs returned to the First Division in season 1950-51 and did the 'double' over Chelsea winning 2-0 away and 2-1 at home on their way to the first Football League Championship. Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea contested the first all-London FA Cup Final in 1967 at Wembley with Spurs winning 2-1 thanks to goals scored by Jimmy Robertson and Frank Saul. The first meeting in the Football League Cup came in the 1971-72 Semi-Finals with Chelsea winning the first leg at Stamford Bridge 3-2 and Spurs only managing a 2-2 draw at White Hart Lane. Both clubs were founder members of the Premier League in 1992-93 and both have been ever-present for the 20 seasons of the competition, along with Arsenal, Aston Villa, Everton, Liverpool and Manchester United. Chelsea have very much had the upper hand during the Premier League Era with 22 wins to Tottenham's 3 with the remaining 13 matches drawn. A second domestic Cup Final was contested in 2008 when Spurs beat Chelsea in the Football League (Carling) Cup Final 2-1 after extra time at Wembley. A Dimitar Berbatov penalty and a Jonathan Woodgate header ensured the silverware would once again reside in North London. Chelsea's dominance over Tottenham Hotspur has abated in the past few seasons, with Spurs winning three, drawing three and losing two of the past eight meetings in all competitions between the two clubs. Last season's fixture in December at White Hart Lane resulted in a 1-1 draw with Roman Pavlyuchenko scoring for Spurs after 15 minutes and Didier Drogba getting Chelsea's equaliser after 70 minutes. Drogba's injury time penalty was saved by Heurelho Gomes. The reverse fixture at Stamford Bridge in April was won by Chelsea 2-1 with Spurs taking a 19th minute lead through Sandro and Frank Lampard equalising on half time. Salomon Kalou scored the winner after 89 minutes. During the summer, Spurs signed former Chelsea midfielder (2004-05) Scott Parker from West Ham United. Overall, Spurs have won 68, Chelsea have won 72 and 45 of the 185 matches between the two clubs have been drawn. please log in to view this image Full History of Chelsea v Tottenham Hotspur Matches 1908-2011 please log in to view this image They Played for Chelsea & Spurs.... Clive Allen Les Allen Jimmy Armstrong Frank Arnesen (Director of Football both clubs) Eddie Baily Ted Birnie Danny Blanchflower (Spurs player, Chelsea manager) Derek Brazil Johnny Brooks Bill Cartwright Sid Castle David Copeland Carlo Cudicini Jason Cundy Kerry Dixon Gordon Durie Mark Falco William Gallas Lee Gardner George Graham (Chelsea player, Spurs manager) Jimmy Greaves Frode Grodas Eidur Gudjohnsen Tommy Harmer (Spurs player, Chelsea coach) Alan Harris (Chelsea player, Spurs asst. manager) Micky Hazard Glenn Hoddle (Spurs & Chelsea player & manager) Stewart Houston (Chelsea player, Spurs asst. manager) Percy Humphries Steve Kelly John Kirwan Colin Lee Scott Parker Gustavo Poyet Graham Roberts Max Seeburg Buchanan Sharp Bobby Smith Neil Sullivan Andy Thompson (Spurs player, Chelsea coach) Sid Tickridge Jimmy Townley Terry Venables (also Spurs manager) Keith Weller Ernie Walley (Spurs player, Chelsea asst. manager) Harry Wilding Clive Wilson Vivian Woodward please log in to view this image Chelsea Premier League Player's Squad Numbers 1993-94 to 2011-12 Tottenham Hotspur Premier League Player's Squad Numbers 1993-94 to 2011-12 Premier League London Derbies Season 2011-12 please log in to view this image please log in to view this image
THFC--- I congratulate you on a very impressive historical review of the history and statistics of our clubs!
Great work again THFC6061 Keep the research etc coming I hadn't realised George Graham played for us.
Afternoon lads, feeling confident for Thursday? Should be a great game. How are Chelsea shaping up injury-wise? Defoe and Bale will almost certainly be back for us but Lennon will join Dawson and Huddlestone on our crocked list and King is always a doubt.
Great thread mate and very informative! Hopefully a good game and going to be very tough for both of us
Ramires and Luiz missed the game vs Wigan with minor injuries but should hopefully be back for Thursday, on saturday it was reported they had a 80% chance! Apart from that only Essien is out. Big miss not having lennon and shame Bale couldn't miss this game aswell lol, how do you reckon your line-up mate?
What a read! Well done. Apparently Terry pinched his achillies in training today, it was fan day at the bridge. They said he'd be ok for Thursday though thankfully. Looking forward to this game massively.
I think we'll line up the same as yesterday but with Bale instead of Lennon. Sandro and Parker will play the deeper midfield roles with Bale possibly on the right and Modric on the "left". I'd rather Bale was on the left as you're weaker at right back but we don't really have any right wingers, Modric can't play there and VDV doesn't like playing there so it may be that Walker is our only outlet on the right with Modric drifting around the pitch and VDV playing off Ade. Eitherway I'm confident of our defence, even if King is out, Gallas was superb yesterday and Kaboul is having a great season. Having Sandro and Parker in front will help us cover Benny and Walker's foray's forward but we'll need to be much more clinical if we're going to beat you on Thursday. Ramires is a really good player and his work rate would be sorely missed from your midfield. What's the general opinion of Luiz on here? The last game I saw him in was the Newcastle match when he again looked unreliable and should've been sent off early on. If Alex hadn't put in a transfer request, I'd start him as he's a safer option.
I'm glad Lennon isn't playing who's been good recently, Cole would struggle with him I think in his recent form. How do you think Ekotto will cope with the in-form Sturridge? Should be some interesting player match ups. Bale and Ivan/Bosingwa aswell! Ramires is our best midfielder, I think it'll be him and Meireles in the middle with Romeu behind then which I'll be confident with. Regards to Luiz, I think he's a top player who just hasn't been listening to instructions. He proved he could defend well against Valencia and I just think someone hasn't been telling him off for what he's been doing.
Yeah, Lennon's been great, he was frustrating last season but his decision making in the final third has improved and he's been a consistent threat for us since returning from injury. Cole usually deals with him easily but as you say he's dropped off this season. Ekotto's very underrated by other team's fans I find but Sturridge has been playing very well so I can't see Benny and the rest of the defence keeping him totally out of the game.
I've always rated Ekotto, think he's in the top 5 in the prem. Although I have seen him give the ball away a bit easily on the odd occasion but it's not often.
Lennons a little like Walcott, half decent, blows hot & cold with a penchant for freezing and never top draw.
Yeah, he's a bit like Luiz in that he prefers to take risks instead of clearing the ball out. It's nerve racking when he's selling dummies and running the ball out but in terms of tackling and strength he's pretty good. He had a shocker of a first half against Stoke but that's the first game he's been poor in this season.
DL--George Graham was a hero of mine and had a great partnership with Barry Bridges. For reasons undisclosed in the press, he put in a transfer request, much to the displeasure of the Doc, who refused to grant it. He then simply stopped playing. I remember going to a game at Upton Park against the Hammers, and he was just wandering about on the pitch, completely refusing to take part. Soon after he was sold to the Gooners for £50k a fairly big sum in those days! In short he did a Tevez!
Ah fair enough, will be interesting to see who wins the midfield battle, i personally think we need to line up with romeu-meireles-ramires. On luiz i think his a quality player he just makes some rash challenges sometimes but if he can just relax and calm down then here be perfect, his been made to look like a fool this season because of that stupid highline, apart from the rash challenges last season he was quality so if we don't play that ****ty high line which i doubt we will then he should be ok as Adebayor isn't the fastest player. I'm hoping and think we will line up like this - Cech,Brana,Luiz,Terry,Cole,Romeu,Meireles,Lampard,Mata,Torres,Sturridge. Alex is another quality defender that i'll be sad to lose but once again even his made mistakes this season, mainly in the high-line
Yeah just what I've noticed. I think I've heard somewhere that Ekotto doesn't actually like Football and doesn't follow it at all, just treats it like we all treat our jobs! Or am I making that up?
That is correct http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/may/01/benoit-assou-ekotto-tottenham-hotspur Great player though and one of the best in the Prem on his day - odd mistake but pretty damn solid
Yeah it's quality that he doesn't have the passion for footy yet can still perform at a great level! Don't know if I could do the same!
