Key occasions
66 minutes: Johnson kicks the ball into Gilchrist this time, and it goes behind for a Spurs nook.
64 minutes: Johnson is now on the left so has a brand new full-back to kick the ball into. Son is down the center, and Kulusevski on the appropriate.
63 minutes: Most likely Spurs’ finest two minutes of the sport, however they will’t discover a means by way of the Chelsea backline and it ends with a long-range shot that goes large. And with that, a triple change: Richarlison, Bissouma and Sarr go off; Bentancur, Maddison and Hojbjerg come on.
60 minutes: Madueke runs into the world, however tries to go to Palmer when he ought to simply have thumped the ball into the roof of the web.
58 minutes: The ball is performed proper to Johnson. Richarlison is unmarked within the center. Johnson kicks the ball into Cucurella. Pedro Porro actually has his head in his palms.
56 minutes: Johnson is placing in a frustratingly guileless show on the Spurs proper. He can run and he can kick, and if anybody’s standing in his means he’ll run into them, or kick the ball into them.
52 minutes: From a fast throw-in Madueke is present in house and he passes to Palmer, simply inside the world and with house to measure his shot. His shot, nevertheless, is garbage.
50 minutes: Son has run with the ball twice this half already. He was virtually solely absent from the primary half. The second run ends together with his heel being clipped by Gilchrist, and a free kick.
48 minutes: Spurs win a nook. Cucurella goes down clutching his face (he was pushed a bit by Van de Ven, however nothing occurred to his face). Chelsea fre ekick.
47 minutes: Spurs on the entrance foot. Petrovic does a full-length dive to push away a cross from the appropriate. “Is there any means for Spurs to start out every sport 1-0 down?” asks Phil Moseley. “Principally (a) it’s inevitable anyway, and (b) they don’t get up till they do. I believe Ange can be tremendous with this, identical to he’s tremendous with conceding from set items.”
46 minutes: Peeeeeep! Spurs begin half two.
The gamers are again out. Neither supervisor seems to have made any half-timely modifications.
Half-time listening: Sure, it’s Indignant Angerson. All of the sudden you’re seeing him simply the way in which he’s.
Sky are speaking about “Indignant Ange”, saying he was completely incandescent at some factors within the first half. The difficulty is that even when he’s indignant he appears to look fairly cheerful:
Half time: Chelsea 1-0 Tottenham
The nook is shipped in, headed behind, and the whistle sounds. Chelsea need to be forward and are forward, however Romero ought to actually have equalised for Spurs.
45+4 minutes: Ten seconds of stoppage time to play, and Chelsea win a nook. This’ll be the final motion of the half, you’d have thought.
45+3 minutes: Petrovic has some correct work to do, catching Johnson’s low cross after it deflects his means off Cucurella.
45+2 minutes: A pleasant transfer from Spurs, nevertheless it ends with Johnson chopping the ball again to Sarr, whose shot deflects large off Chalobah.
45+1 minutes: Into stoppage time, of which there’ll be 4 minutes.
43 minutes: Johnson wins a nook. These have been a greater, if not precisely good, jiffy for Spurs. “As an Arsenal fan I needs to be having fun with this dreadful Spurs efficiency however I would like them to seek out some type, as they’ll by no means take factors off Metropolis enjoying like this,” writes Matthew Stephens. “COYS!”
41 minutes: Mudryk cuts inside once more, and shoots excessive once more. He’s had an honest half, however he’s had a few poor photographs.
38 minutes: Probability! Porro curls the ball onto Romero’s head, and from simply contained in the six-yard space he heads large! That’s by a large margin Tottenham’s finest probability to date.
37 minutes: Badashile fouls Richarlison on the appropriate of the penalty space, and Spurs have a helpful set-piece of their very own. “It’s widespread in Latin American nations to present your baby an anglophone identify then change the spelling to make it make sense in your personal language,” explains Simon Frank, helpfully. “David in Brazilian Portuguese would phonetically be written Deivid. See additionally Colombian Yohnnys, Yeris and so forth and my spouse Natachard who has a Haitian mom.”
35 minutes: Postecoglu is dropping his rag on the touchline, screaming at any close by participant. It’s not a superb time to be on Tottenham’s proper wing.
34 minutes: Kulusevski makes an attempt a 40-yard wonderpass, and sends the ball bouncing by way of to Petrovic.
32 minutes: Chelsea are very a lot the higher facet right here, and a second objective is smelling imminent. Palmer executes a beautiful ability transfer and passes to Mudryk, whose right-foot roller doesn’t curl sufficient. Aim kick.
30 minutes: Madueke runs with the ball to the byline, after which retains going. Aim kick.
27 minutes: The objective stands! Postecoglou is shaking his head on the sidelines, however I believe it’s an honest choice (however the concern of deliberate blocking does should be extra convincingly handled).
VAR is taking a look at this. The query is whether or not Cucurella blocked Johnson, stopping him from difficult for the header. On the plus facet the additional replays show there was no deflection, only a actually good header.
GOAL! Chelsea 1-0 Tottenham (Chalobah, 24 minutes)
Spurs concede from a set piece once more! It’s a beautiful ball in from Gallagher, from a fairly central free-kick, and Chalobah heads in from 14 yards (ish)! I believe he headed it straight into the again of Emerson Royal and it looped in from there, and it ought to in all probability be an personal objective because the header was off course, however replays have been inconclusive.
23 minutes: Madueke collects a protracted crossfield go, cuts infield and shoots over the bar from the sting of the world.
21 minutes: Mudryk goes on a run. It begins with a beautiful nutmeg, virtually ends a few occasions – voluntarily, with him making an attempt to go the ball – however the ball at all times hits a Spurs participant and rebounds again into his path. Ultimately he’s about six yards from objective, however with defenders throughout him and one in every of them deflects his shot/no matter to Vicario.
18 minutes: “Sincere query,” writes Ben Gastel, “placing apart Moore and Austin for Spurs, has each different Spurs bench participant have extra EPL minutes than actually each Chelsea bench participant mixed? And I embody Gil and Dragusin in that query.” Um, perhaps? Chelsea’s bench is awfully callow. The query that leaps to my thoughts once I see Chelsea’s bench is, who calls their baby Deivid?
17 minutes: Cucurella’s pull-back from the byline goes behind everybody however runs to the far fringe of the world the place Alfie Gilchrist runs in the direction of it. The gang bays “Shoot” and he sprints ballwards with nothing else in his thoughts. He thumps it over the bar.
15 minutes: Chelsea have a nook, which Vicario doesn’t cope with convincingly. They get one other nook, which Richarlison heads clear.
14 minutes: Mudryk finds a superb go to launch Cucurella, however by the point he works out what to do with the pocket of penalty-area house he’s discovered himself in Van de Ven has closed it.
12 minutes: That is the chance that Palmer did not convert:
10 minutes: The ball is performed forward of Emerson Royal’s run into the Chelsea penalty space. He feels Madueke’s arm contact his left shoulder and collapses. I’ve seen them given – however they by no means needs to be, and this one will not be.
8 minutes: Brennan Johnson has had decently promising possession a few occasions to date. The primary time he ignored the truth that Cucurella was blocking his path to objective and blasted a shot, nicely, straight at Cucurella, as if hoping he would possibly simply conveniently stop to exist. Then simply now he had time and house to measure a cross, however despatched the ball floating out of play.
5 minutes: Chelsea go shut! Jackson is performed by way of, and Vicario half-comes, stops, and will get caught in no-man’s-land. Jackson’s shot hits him however appears goalwards, till Van de Ven hools it clear however proper onto the instep of Cole Palmer, six yards away from a totally open objective. It involves him in a short time, and one way or the other finally ends up going over the bar!
4 minutes: Vicario, the Spurs goalkeeper, has kicked the ball twice to date and has to a larger or lesser diploma however not but a disastrous one messed it up each groups.
2 minutes: Not so much has occurred, and all of it hasn’t occurred down Tottenham’s proper/Chelsea’s left.
1 min: Peeeeeep! Chelsea have kicked off.
“A phrase on 16-year-old Mikey Moore on the bench for Spurs as we speak,” writes Alexandra Ashton. “Gained the Beneath-17 and Beneath-18 cups final season, performed for the Beneath-21s at 15, and has educated with the primary group for the previous week after allegedly impressing Postecoglou and the teaching employees. A difficult winger, he could nicely grow to be precisely the kind of participant we’ve been lacking in the previous few months.”
The gamers are out and, as I sort, doing performative hand-clasps.
I do like the way in which the house dressing-room at Stamford Bridge has a large-font reminder for any confused gamers of exactly whose floor they’re in.
So 5 modifications for Spurs, which appears quite a bit. James Maddison is on the bench, and Richarlison is again within the beginning line-up. Right here’s a little bit of Ange Postecoglou:
Look, it’s about freshening up the group tonight. I believed normally our soccer was respectable the entire sport [against Arsenal]. We paid the value for a scarcity of focus however we fought again within the second half and have proven resilience all yr and we’ll want that resilience tonight.
Mauricio Pochettino has given 20-year-old Alfie Gilchrist a second begin, and has a terrifically younger bench:
That’s the actuality that we live for the entire season and as we speak the next expression. However we should be optimistic and naturally the children are within the membership as a result of they need to have the chance to undergo to the primary group.
A reminder of what the league desk appears like pre-match. No matter occurs tonight Spurs will finish it fifth however Chelsea may go as much as eighth with a degree or extra, or right down to tenth in the event that they lose by, um, 12 targets or extra.
The groups!
The group sheets have been handed to the match officers, and the names scrawled upon them have been these:
Chelsea: Petrovic, Gilchrist, Chalobah, Badiashile, Cucurella, Caicedo, Gallagher, Madueke, Palmer, Mudryk, Jackson. Subs: Bettinelli, Casadei, Deivid Washington, Tauriainen, Castledine, Acheampong, George, Dyer, Sturge.
Tottenham Hotspur: Vicario, Porro, Romero, van de Ven, Emerson, Bissouma, Sarr, Johnson, Kulusevski, Son, Richarlison. Subs: Skipp, Hojbjerg, Dragusin, Maddison, Gil Salvatierra, Lo Celso, Bentancur, Austin, Moore.
Referee: Robert Jones (Merseyside).
Nicely the managers appear to get on…
Preamble
Howdy world! Tottenham away at Chelsea is it? All Spurs followers will know what meaning: no probability of victory. To explain their report at Stamford Bridge as a heaving stream of effluent can be to massively overstate how good it’s: within the final 38 visits they’ve misplaced 24 occasions, drawn 13 occasions, and received only a solitary, pitiful as soon as. That was in April 2018, when Dele Alli scored twice in a 3-1 victory – the one folks concerned in that sport who may very well be concerned tonight are Son Heung-min and Mauricio Pochettino, Spurs supervisor then and within the Chelsea dugout now.
Within the build-up to this sport I’ve notably loved PA Media’s headline on their story detailing Pochettino’s pre-match ideas:
‘REALLY GOOD’ CHELSEA FANS GIVE MAURICIO POCHETTINO TREATS WHILE WALKING HIS DOG
What’s actually particular right here is the concept that the followers usually are not giving treats to Pochettino’s canine, they’re popping them into the grateful maw of the Argentinian himself. I’m picturing a sequence of exchanges through which strangers method him to say one thing alongside the traces of: “Yeah I do know we simply misplaced the FA Cup semi-final after which let Arsenal put 5 previous us, however I’ve discerned some type of underlying high quality behind these superficially hapless shows – have a fun-size Twix.”
And it’s much more scrumptious as a result of the article that follows mentions neither treats nor a canine. “When I’m on the road the individuals are actually good and recognize,” Pochettino mentioned. “They offer us the credit score [for] working in a undertaking and a course of that’s so tough.”
Spurs are seven factors behind fourth-placed Aston Villa and their Champions League place, with two video games in hand, however with Liverpool (a) and Manchester Metropolis (h) nonetheless to play after tonight, defeat right here would make the prospect of successful seven extra factors look unlikely. Chelsea are 5 factors behind seventh-placed Newcastle and 6 away from Manchester United in sixth, with a sport in hand on each, and victory right here would gasoline their very own European ambitions – and earn Pochettino a number of extra tasty goodies.