| Match report
Spurs lost this match against
Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, which is not perhaps an unsurprising
statistic having our past record there in mind, but the 2-1 defeat
didn't come without controversy. The late VAR call that
came too late to make a difference saw Lampost furious that a
decision didn't go his way (no change there), while the admission
that the off-pitch referee had made a mistake was a revelation, as
they would never admit that the one on the pitch had done such a
thing. Tottenham lacked a threat up front and as a
consequence, the first goal of the game meant that it would always
be an uphill struggle for us.
Both sides were subject to
change from defeats in the preceding week, but the start was cagey
until the game burst into life in the tenth minute. Spurs forced two
corners and from the second, Moura linked with Bergwijn to take a
return pass and smash a shot to the keeper’s right, but Cabellero
got down to it to push the ball wide. Chelsea responded with
Mount forcing Lloris to a smart save down at his near post as the
shot came in from the left and then Jorginho played a ball through
to Giroud, whose shot was kicked out by Lloris and then Barkley
returned it against the post. The ball fell for Giroud again and he
turned on it to fire the ball into the net at Hugo’s near post from
the right side of the goal. A goal down after 15 minutes, Spurs were
going to have enough trouble without any recognised strikers, but
now they had to be aggressive and sharper in getting a foothold back
in the match.
Chelsea’s French forward got away with stamping on Sanchez’s foot,
with Winks then picking up a yellow card for pulling Jorginho back
after he lost the ball. Chelsea were closing Spurs down quickly, all
over the Tottenham half and it was leading to them losing the ball
too often. When a corner for the home side was cleared, it dropped
to Alonso just outside the D and he took a touch, then fired a right
foot shot narrowly over the left-hand angle of Lloris’ goal.
VAR wasn’t called upon when Mount fouled Lo Celso and the Argentine
kicked out a foot at him, with the youngster going down
exaggeratedly to try and get a decision out of the referee. Looking
at the video of it, it didn’t look too different to Son’s red card
in the first game between the two sides. However, why Mount
was booked for the first foul, when Winks had just got one for the
same thing, only Michael Oliver can explain. Tottenham needed to
keep their composure, as the Blues were looking to make the most of
any challenge that came their way.
Just after the half hour, Ndombele played the ball through to
Bergwijn, who slipped it off the side of his foot for Lucas and
Azpilicueta had to slide in to block it for a corner. Lo Celso
played it in and Sanchez got his head to it, forcing Caballero to
back-pedal and touch the ball over the bar. Toby struck a 60-yard
pass beyond Alonso to Tanganga running on to it and he got to the
ball first on the right corner of the box, taking it across the
area, selling the keeper, who had rushed out. It was a foot race to
the ball that Japhet was winning, but it just ran out of play to
save Cabellero’s blushes. It was clear to see that Chelsea had
wobbles when Tottenham attacked, but Jan Vertonghen was alert when
it looked like Kovacic was looking to play in Giroud and Jan played
the ball off the striker for a goal-kick. Spurs were looking to work
the ball out from the back, but were often playing themselves into
trouble, with the press causing them to turn over possession and
when we had throw-ins, there was not a man ready to receive the
ball, leading to Chelsea winning the ball.
As usual, the home crowd was as quiet as Highbury as their team
passed the ball, but to little effect. There was little of
note in the first half really, as the teams had mostly cancelled
each other out. Spurs were asleep from a throw-in halfway in
Chelsea’s half and the ball was played up to Mount from Giroud’s
header and it was then squared to Alonso, who struck the ball past
Lloris’ left hand to make it 2-0. Sloppy from Spurs, allowing the
ball to be worked forward by Chelsea so early in the second half.
It gave the home team confidence, with Barkley getting the ball on
the left and turning to hit a shot heading for the top corner of
Hugo’s near post, but the Spurs captain produced a good save to tip
it over the bar. Lo Celso was involved again, when James pulled him
off balance and Azpilicueta slid in, with Giovani’s foot coming down
on the Chelsea captain’s calf. It took a lot of viewing by VAR, but
decided that nothing was doing on the violent play front. Lampost
wasn’t happy about it, but when you’re Frank Lampost, you don’t have
much reason to be happy. He was constantly in the fourth official’s
ear and it was just a continuation of Chelsea’s long-held disrespect
for officials. When Spurs had possession in midfield, Lucas
came short to receive the ball, but nobody was going beyond him to
give Bergwijn support. With a target man in Giroud, Chelsea had more
of an out ball than Tottenham.
A spell of passing in the Chelsea half ended with Ndombele ghosting
past three players, but instead of getting his shot away, James got
back to block him off. With that Jose made the decision to change
things with just under a half an hour left. Lamela replaced
Ndombele. Mount made the Chelsea scream every time they got
tackled, winning a free-kick on their right wing, before Christensen
was all over Tanganga, who was deemed to have run the ball off the
pitch for a throw-in to Chelsea. A crude foul on Lucas Moura
by Christensen got a yellow card and a free-kick 25 yards out, which
Lamela took and it was deflected over the bar by the wall. When the
corner was cleared, Winks played it back in for Toby to float a
header at goal that Cabellero saved, but nearly pulled it back over
his own line as Sanchez came in to challenge.
With 25 minutes left, Chelsea looked as though they were tiring, as
Spurs were finding more space to move the ball and move with it, as
Moura did, going across the pitch 20 yards out, but his pull back
was hacked away. Abraham came on for Giroud, as fresh legs were
introduced by Lampost. Spurs were passing better and when a
right-wing move played in Winks close to the dead ball line and his
cross bounced back to him off Jorginho and then Rudiger looked to
push him down from behind, but Oliver showed no interest. Both teams
swapped players in midfield, with Dele coming on for Spurs, having
less than 15 minutes to change the way the game was going, as Serge
Aurier also came on for Toby.
A ball curled behind Vertonghen saw Mount look for the ball across
the box for Abraham, whose touch was very well stopped by Lloris as
the Chelsea forward ran into the post with a leg each side !!
Chelsea were gifted another opportunity when Lo Celso stuck a leg up
to clear the ball and Mount came in form his blind side to run into
it in the D of the penalty area. Alonso took it but he could get it
down quickly enough, seeing it bounce back out off the face of the
bar.
Chelsea dropped deeper allowing Tottenham to have more of the ball,
but the two banks of four made it difficult to find a way through.
But that was what they did with a minute left, as Spurs played the
ball well and Moura’s pass put Erik Lamela through on the left and
he took an extra touch, looking like the chance had gone. His ball
across the box took a touch off Rudiger’s heel and with Cabellero
going the other way, he couldn’t change his position with his weight
going left, leaving the ball to sneak in at the near post.
Chelsea looked to try and grab a goal back, with Willan going
through into the box, but he could only toe-poke the ball at Lloris
as that was the last chance of the game. Tottenham left it a
little too late to start running the ball at the Chelsea defence,
who looked suspect in the closing quarter of the match.
VAR’s admission that Lo Celso’s “stamp” on Azpilicueta should have
been a red card only serves to show how flawed it is, as they spent
a long time looking at it at the time, without coming out with that
decision. Given enough time, I am sure you could come to any
decision you want, but they could have said that they weren’t sure
and allowed the referee to look at it on the off-pitch monitor.
If anything, his kick out at Jorginho might have been worse and they
didn’t admit to that, even after Maguire’s kick out on Batshauyi on
Monday night. "Clear and obvious" error. Would the VAR
official know one if it bit him ? There is no doubt that Lo
Celso was a bit naughty all game and he should have been sent off
for one or the other incident, with the first being more likely.
What isn't in dispute is
that Spurs are suffering. Comments by Mourinho indicate that
he feels Troy Parrott's head isn't right to be thrown into the first
team and we have no other recognised all-out forward. So, we
are left with using our attacking midfielders/wingers or playing
with a false nine. The problem we might have with the latter
is that it leaves the opposition's defence to have space and time to
play the ball and pressing them needs to be done across the line.
It wasn't a terrible
performance, as Chelsea are not playing that well at the moment, but
they score two goals that caught out our defence and my worry is
that teams are perhaps identifying Jan and Toby as being slower on
the turn, so a ball bent behind them might give strikers and
opportunity to get in behind them. The team needs to be better
drilled at tightening up the middle and back of the side. If
we are not being able to score as many goals as we would like, we
need to be less likely to concede. With a string of games
coming up over the next three weeks, our season could be determined
by how we get through those fixtures.
Euan Oosarmi |
