Absolutely Awful Derby Performance

By Gary Watton
November 24 2018

For the second time this year, Tottenham Hotspur defeated Chelsea by three goals to one, and predictably Delle Ali was amongst the scorers. This rarest of Wembley wins by the 'mighty Spurs' against Chelsea could easily have resulted in a far more humiliating result, such was the inadequacy of Chelsea's defending and the wastefulness of the hosts in front of goals. Chelsea too were guilty of spurning chances, as the cockeyed Willian missed from close range and Pedro might have scored a late goal. Meanwhile the frustrating and frustrated Alvaro Morata shall henceforth be renamed Morata Offside. Aside from diabolical defending, the away team remain handicapped by fielding a trio of non-scoring midfielders.

Worst of all, the arrangement of playing Jorginho in front of the defence was cruelly exposed. Most Chelsea attacks start and go via the Italian, but when he gets closed down, our supply line gets largely shut down. Sarri desperately needs to rethink his strategy. Kante is not an attacking midfielder, and perhaps Jorginho should play in front of him, and not behind him.

No doubt we will hear noises about how the team will be looking for a reaction in our forthcoming Europa League encounter. However it is infinitely more important to achieve a 'reaction' at home to Foolham, and to prolong the reaction for many matches thereafter. Otherwise, the hapless team in yellow could conceivably slip out of the prized top four positions.

 

Tottenham Hotspur 3 CHELSEA 1; half time: 2-0

CHELSEA: Arrizabalaga; Azpilicueta; Alonso; Luiz; Rudiger; Kovacic; Jorginho; Kante; Willian; Morata; Hazard. Used substitutes: Barkley; Pedro; Giroud

CHELSEA goal scorer: Giroud

 

LEADING SCORERS:

Hazard eight

Morata six

Loftus-Cheek four

Pedro four

Barkley three

Willian three

Giroud two