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Chelsea v Spurs
Match review
Thread
Match review
Thread
Chelsea v Spurs ended in a hotly contested 1-1 draw. With both teams being a bit cautious but Chelsea threatened the mostly deep blocked Spurs goal more and had the chances to win the game but ultimately both teams had to settle for a draw/ lets analyze how things panned out
Chelsea lined up in a 433(Lampard's new favoured formation) while spurs in a 4231(classic Mourinho formation)
Chelsea lined up in a 433 in possession but out of possession Chelsea mirrored a 433 or 442 when pressing with Kovacic picking his moments to press up high with Tammy Abraham in our own half Chelsea made a 451 deep block
Out of Possession Spurs in a 442 with Ndombele pressing high with Kane, and also helping to block the passing lane into Kante in the midfield. Sissoko and Holjberg were tasked with staying tight to Werner and Ziyech when Spurs's fullbacks pushed high to press our Full backs
Notice how when Regulion presses Reece James, Holjberg immediately goes to cover him and stay with Ziyech
I said in the preview thread that, Jose will prepare for the rotations of Reece James and Ziyech and Spurs used the 2 CMs to cover Ziyech and Werner. In the second half Ziyech and James combined better and created chances for Tammy which he couldn't score https://twitter.com/SeunMobolaji/status/1332618626369785856?s=20
Spurs looked to get at Chelsea on the counter-attack, whenever Chelsea lost the ball. they flew in numbers pouring forward and Regulion and Aurier looked to offer width through the flanks from deep positions.
But realistically they only did it a few times in the opening 20 to 30 mins but then Chelsea got the hang of it and it didn't cause them any problems. Chelsea managed to lock down Kane and Son for most of the game, credit to the defensive organisation of the team
in open play though apart from counters, Spurs tried to find Son and Kane in the halfspaces to link up with each other and switch the play to the other wing to cause Chelsea problems. They always tried to play square balls to the edge of the box where Ndombele,
Bergwin were on the end of them and immediately look to find runners in Kane and Son just in behind the defence. It happened a few times and Chelsea dealt with it superbly. Here by Kurt Zouma
Chelsea meanwhile tried to break Spurs down by going around their midfield cause if they lost the ball there. Spurs could easily counter and get more chances by using crosses. but for most of the first half Spurs did a good job of limiting the threat of RJ and Ziyech's crossing
By using Holjberg and also Werner recieveing the ball in the half spaces. by using Sissoko to cover him like explained. Chelsea found it hard to break them down when they were in their deep block. so they had only 1 shot on target that half. Long ranger from Ziyech
when Chelsea got some possesion with more space was when Rodon lost the ball when Tammy pressed him, gave Mount in the half space with a great run and passing it to Timo who buries it but only offside.
Chelsea only got real Joy in the second half when Kovacic dropped deeper more than he did in the first half and we began to take more risks and punching balls into the halfspaces and linking up with out wingers and as a result. our best chances came early into the second half.
Kante finds Mount in the halfspace with a good ball Mount gives Ziyech and creates a chance for Werner that was just blocked. it was going in.
Another chance in a matter of minutes. this time Kova puts one for Ziyech again in the halfspace, cute ball to James who puts a beauty in. Abraham should have surely done better with that header.
Then soon after again Kovacic and Ziyech manage to occupy Regulion and Holjberg leaving RJ free, Bergwin hasn't been the one tracking him for most of the game but is forced to deal with him but Reece does well to evade him and put in another delicious cross we should score
Notice how the rotations caused Spurs problems in the second half, Ziyech was also free here if Reece wanted to clip a ball into him. The spurs players got confused on who to mark.
Much different from the first half as it looked like Lampard instructed the fullbacks not to push up as high because of the counters. but this time he allowed them higher up the field, Chilwell began to make more overlapping runs. RJ went wider to the right and kova covered more
Tammy and Ziyech also had chances after that and missed too. That was one too many for Spurs and they didn't allow many more again. we wasted that period without getting a goal. we need to improve on that. having that killer instinct. it will improve.
Another key thing to note here is Chelsea's counter pressing. This was another good test of Chelsea's counter pressing and it worked very well. Chelsea managed to use it to stop most of Spurs counter attacks. instance 1
Another instance Bergwin was suffocated into giving the ball away, blocking all passing angles and outnumbering him with 4 men. Ndombele managed to get out when he was surrounded by 2, but not when he was by 4. The power and will to win the ball back in numbers is really useful
Spurs managed to shut the door for the rest of the second half, our Subs couldn't really get into the game since they are still rusty, but Giroud had a very good chance and fluffed it. Zouma almost gifted Spurs a late one but we were lucky nothing came out of it
All in all it was a tense affair where both team's defences came out in top, although Chelsea will rightly feel they could have gotten something out of the game if they had better finishing. but it shows again how far Chelsea have come with their defence. it was outstanding.
Lampard will have to take more risks to win games like this and he did that in the second half and we were disappointed not to have. this kind of game is where a piece of magic could win you the game like the Mount's shot but Gk's like Lloris shows why they are world-class
We will have more big-game tests, and if we want to compete for the league we have to try to win them, but I believe this team will overcome that.
Its a process
Its a process
likes, Rts, thoughts highly appreciated.
Thank you
Thank you
