Spurs showed their best and worst sides under Ange Postecoglou as Chelsea displayed why Enzo Maresca should be ignored when it comes to this title race.
1) It felt like the perfect weekend for Liverpool. That increasingly more frequent combination of Arsenal and Manchester City simultaneously dropping points, with the Reds themselves avoiding the prosect of facing set-piece’s Sean Dyche’s Everton in the middle of an actual literal storm, only strengthened their unlikely position at the summit of the Premier League table.
Yet with each game, the speck in the rear-view mirror becomes bigger, louder and more of an impending, ominous obstacle. Enzo Maresca can, will and should continue to dismiss the title credentials of this Chelsea team; everyone else may assess them impartially while running out of excuses as to why they can’t go all the way.
This remains a flawed team but rarely have strengths been so thoroughly outweighed by weaknesses. Chelsea have momentum behind them and the players are making no attempt to disguise their growing belief that they can challenge. Liverpool will not be foolish to overlook currently their strongest competitors.
2) This was not the first time a December game involving Chelsea felt like a proper watershed moment in terms of title-challenging accreditation.
When Leicester beat the Blues at the King Power Stadium nine years ago something shifted: they were finally being perceived more widely as actual contenders rather than a team simply riding an inexplicable wave which would not last the distance. The accepted wisdom that they could not possibly compete for the title based on preconceptions of how those teams are built and what they should look like had been countered enough times to be rendered entirely moot, with that the statement victory.
There was a similar vibe to this, down to the beleaguered Big Six manager being edged closer to an inevitable exit. Jose Mourinho lasted three more days in the post and while Ange Postecoglou should beat that, it does not feel as though he can change the ultimate destination.
This was his Tottenham in a microcosm: a pulsating, energetic, brilliant start; a team defined by purpose and drive; stupid mistakes; an inability to address clear issues highlighted by a more coherent side.
Spurs tend to flit maddeningly between the first and last two of those four key facets with each game but rarely within them. Pulling it all together in one remarkable mess of ideas was at least refreshing, even if it did add even more to the sense that Postecoglou’s race is run.
When the clear positives of his work cannot even last the full 90 minutes now, it is unavoidably worth asking what the point of it all is.
3) But those fleeting positives might still be just intoxicating enough to sustain a failing experiment.
Spurs were relentless in the first 15 minutes. Benoit Badiashile and Robert Sanchez were both forced into atrocious decisions on the ball and two Marc Cucurella slips were punished remorselessly to establish a comprehensive lead – the earliest Chelsea have trailed by two goals in the Premier League since 1996.
It seems simplistic to draw a correlation between Cristian Romero’s enforced substitution and Chelsea finding their feet as the issues which undermined that excellence from the first whistle are fundamental. When this team clicks it is close to unstoppable and temporarily erases the inevitable lapses into comical incompetence from memory – until Romero injures himself trying an elaborate and needless turn in his own area as a crushing reminder.
4) No team has lost more Premier League games in which they have been at least two goals ahead than Tottenham. It is a perfect statistic, a revelation which confirms suspicions yet still surprises.
It was the second time this season Spurs have lost having been two goals ahead. And Postecoglou’s quotes before the first instance remain painfully relevant as a blurb to his reign. Asked how he planned to keep things “controlled” against Brighton in October he replied: “We don’t. Let’s keep it open. That way we entertain everyone and hopefully get the result we want.”
If that is the perennial message from the manager it explains an awful lot of Tottenham’s problems. Postecoglou even said after this game “we were really in control” but he cannot possibly hold that opinion with any form of sincerity when discussing events beyond the opening quarter of an hour or so, after which Chelsea dictated everything.
Spurs changed nothing from a plan which might not even have delivered two goals had Cucurella been wearing appropriate footwear from kick-off. Chelsea adapted and overcame. The difference was stark.
5) Cole Palmer will be credited with the starring role in this comeback but everything Chelsea built was on foundations laid by Jadon Sancho.
His goal was excellent, a wonderful run and sublime finish punishing Tottenham’s indecisiveness. Then Sancho also played the final pass for both penalties while being involved in the build-up for Enzo Fernandez’s strike.
He was every bit as crucial in turning things around as Palmer; determination to prove people wrong can be a powerful thing.
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6) It might have been for nought without Maresca’s half-time change, with the impressive Romeo Lavia making way for Malo Gusto, Caicedo moving from right-back to a more familiar midfield position and Badiashile swapping sides with Levi Colwill.
That helped settle the particularly poor Badiashile, whose errors were perhaps Tottenham’s biggest weapon as Dominic Solanke approached their personal battle with relish. The centre-half was considerably less noticeable in the second half, which represented a substantial improvement.
Chelsea’s search for a successful formula without the injured Wesley Fofana has at least identified that Badiashile as the right-sided centre-half is not a viable option.
7) Tottenham’s initial response to the Sancho goal was solid enough. Solanke and Heung-min Son both found openings and Pape Matar Sarr hit the crossbar from a corner. But that marked the end of this being any sort of even, chaotic, back-and-forth basketball game.
Up until the 35th minute, both teams had five shots each. From the 36th minute to the 67th, Chelsea had eight unanswered shots, equalised and were dominant with only one result likely if nothing changed.
When Postecoglou did finally recognise Chelsea were exploiting problems in his setup it was already too late; his first alteration not forced by injury was a triple substitution six minutes after the visitors took a lead they would not surrender. It had been coming for at least half an hour.
8) Even just looking at Tottenham’s starting line-up exposed some uncomfortable truths about Postecolgou; that was a selection by a manager desperate to save himself.
Romero and Micky van de Ven both being rushed back from injury resulted in the pair being taken off, the latter after obviously aggravating the hamstring problem which had sidelinded him for the last seven games. Pedro Porro continued his recent downward trend but was picked again as Djed Spence remains ignored on the periphery.
Poor in-game management only compounded issues which were obvious once the teamsheets were published.
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9) And to complete the perfect Spurs set were players escaping a broken structure and system to make absurd individual decisions under little tangible pressure.
Both penalties were the result of brainless, suicidal defending. It was painfully obvious what Caicedo would try to do when running onto a Sancho pass which, while excellent, limited the receiver’s options to taking a touch past a defender seemingly desperate to go to ground for no apparent reason.
Yves Bissouma has since issued an apology and accepted responsibility on social media, such is the cycle of a Spurs defeat.
But Sarr’s method of dealing with Palmer was even worse. The Chelsea forward was heading towards the corner flag with precious little support, yet the Spurs midfielder barrelled into the back of him in the area with a forearm in the back.
Both moments were breathtakingly stupid.
10) Perhaps Chelsea benefited from a contrast which made much of their play seem more intelligent and coherent. Bissouma and Sarr were foolish but Caicedo and Palmer were clever in buying those penalties.
Then came Fernandez’s goal to make it 3-2, the celebration to which was innocuous yet admirable. For all the talk of Nicolas Jackson’s immaturity and proneness to avoidable yellow cards, the way he prevented the captain from removing his shirt was genuinely praiseworthy.
It was one small moment but proof that a player can learn lessons if they are willing. Spurs as a whole seem too naive to bother.
11) That capped another excellent Fernandez performance as his development in this team continues apace; Maresca seems to have figured out his prime role.
Everything just seems smoother from the Argentinean, as summed up by that point in the second half when he collected a Cucurella throw, evaded three Spurs players and exchanged passes with Sancho to relieve the pressure.
12) Five minutes before the Fernandez goal, Son should have put Spurs back ahead. It was wonderful awareness to latch onto a pass intended for the offside Destiny Udogie as Chelsea players temporarily stopped in anticipation of the linesman’s flag – Pedro Neto was particularly guilty of some always-play-to-the-whistle nonsense – but Son’s finish was atrocious, especially with Timo Werner providing support and an easy chance to square it.
Son was far from his best once more, proving effective from set-pieces but poor in open play outside of some neat interchanges with Solanke. The regression in his finishing has been sharp and when his goal finally did come, it was too late.
13) The sense that Spurs deliberately lack control was not helped by their only player comfortable in possession and happy to take their time on the ball spending all but the last 15 minutes on the bench.
James Maddison set up the Son goal by being patient and delaying that final pass until the perfect moment from a short corner routine. The Spurs midfield was designed to thrive in the press but after the opening exchanges their limitations in possession became a massive problem which was not rectified until the end.
14) Spurs have not spent an insubstantial amount of money building this squad but the difference between loophole-exploiting unlimited funds and their more modest budgets was clear.
Every member of Postecoglou’s side seems either tired, injured or both. Maddison was the only properly starting XI-quality substitute brought on and the lack of forward alternatives is particularly alarming.
As good as Solanke is, Spurs really could do with something different and more direct at times. Chelsea were able to replace Jackson with Christopher Nkunku, Palmer with Joao Felix and Neto with Noni Madueke. Werner’s cameo for an injured Brennan Johnson was not especially inspiring.
15) Cucurella did fairly well to recover after those early mistakes, but far more important was Peter Drury’s excellent “like Cinderella, Cucurella is looking for a slipper that fits” line.
It really is just a shame that it’s now impossible to listen to his commentary without immediately hearing him say ‘Mo SALAH’.
16) What a hilariously sad top of the bottom half of the Premier League table that now is.
11. Tottenham, 12. Newcastle, 13. Manchester United is a brilliant mess of hubris, expensive mismanagement and delusions of grandeur, while 13. Manchester United, 14. West Ham, 15. Everton reads like a support group for teams who can live neither with nor without David Moyes.
Make the most of it while you can because Spurs will only slide further down: Southampton, bottom and winless in five, have an appointment with Dr. Tottenham next weekend, after which Liverpool visit North London in a harbinger of Andre Villas-Boas-shaped doom for Postecoglou. The end is nigh.
