Tottenham Hotspur 1 Chelsea 4

[CarefreeMuratcan]

It's a Blue Day in West London

[Chelsea_Matt]

1 hour ago, Holymoly said:

Err....I don't think so. I actually do think we'll lose but I'm hoping it's not a thumping, whatever the circumstances. Pochettino is going to come under a huge amount of scrutiny tonight, whether it be team selection, tactics or substitutions. I fear he will be out managed by Ange and the team will suffer accordingly.

I think the opposite in terms of the performance but at the end of the day I do agree we will lose, something I can’t believe has become so ingrained into a lot of fans and, I suspect, the team.

[jasonb]

I think we will win though maybe not play better.

The head to head via the BBC

Tottenham ended an eight-game winless run against Chelsea with a 2-0 home victory in February.

They have only won back-to-back Premier League matches versus the Blues once before, in April and November 2018.

No team has scored more Premier League goals away to Spurs than the 51 by Chelsea.

Chelsea's four wins at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in all competitions is the most by any side.

[Dwmh]

9 hours ago, kev61 said:

Many a true word said in jest😉.

You remind me of a judge that knows everything about the law but knows nothing about justice.

Javert springs to mind in les miserable. 

 

While you remind me of a defence solicitor who knows everything about justice but nothing about the law and even less about the judge.  There is only one person's world in which you are useful.

[CarefreeMuratcan]

1 hour ago, jasonb said:

I think we will win though maybe not play better.

The head to head via the BBC

Tottenham ended an eight-game winless run against Chelsea with a 2-0 home victory in February.

They have only won back-to-back Premier League matches versus the Blues once before, in April and November 2018.

No team has scored more Premier League goals away to Spurs than the 51 by Chelsea.

Chelsea's four wins at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in all competitions is the most by any side.

If the players are regaled about what this fixture means for our Club, for the fans, for players past etc. and they fully take that message on board, I believe we will win.

No matter our current transitional period, the mental beast Spurs are playing against is Chelsea Football Club and our lads need to psychologically trick the Spurs players that it's the Chelsea of their nightmares turning up tonight. 

[Holymoly]

2 hours ago, jasonb said:

Tottenham ended an eight-game winless run against Chelsea with a 2-0 home victory in February.

They have only won back-to-back Premier League matches versus the Blues once before, in April and November 2018.

No team has scored more Premier League goals away to Spurs than the 51 by Chelsea.

Chelsea's four wins at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in all competitions is the most by any side.

All completely irrelevant. The only common factors with the club that amassed those results is that we play at Stamford Bridge, train at Cobham and Billy McCulloch the kit man. Literally everything else has been replaced. We now support an entirely different football club. Never before has a club seen such a fundemental replacement of everything it stood for as we have seen at Chelsea FC.

[ROTG]

3 hours ago, xceleryx said:

Mate, you literally sit on here waiting for an opportunity to take a pop at the new ownership, recruitment, our scouting, an virtually everything else in between. 

Are you Yannick from football therapy? You seem to be singing the from the same hymn book that the current ownership and their philosophies are the best thing since Mothers Pride. 

3 hours ago, xceleryx said:

You realise how ridiculous it is to dismiss scouting and recruitment teams from using their knowledge garnered through prior work, right? Man City have scouts who last worked at Leeds, Deportivo, New York, SönderjyskE, Grasshopper, and other clubs that fall well outside of the big leagues. Yet, they manage to do just fine when it comes to finding players. 

Maybe it's because Chitty,s  DoF is the ex-Barca DoF and laid the foundations for recruitment at the club. Where in Chelsea recruitment and scouting dept someone from a top European club?

Not forgetting how the club tried to temp the ex-dippers DoF who obviously not sold on TB idea of recruitment, Hence ending up with mid table PL scouts and their level of recruitment. 

3 hours ago, xceleryx said:

A little ironic that for someone that isn't a qualified football person to have such a strong and dismissive opinion about footballing matters and recruitment. It's not really as linear as you're projecting the matter to be either. Sure, there's a standard required at all levels of the game and you look to recruit for that. Sometimes that may come in the form of buying ready made established options, sometimes that's investing in higher potential that may take a bit more time to grow. There's not hard and fast rule at the end of the day. 

Even someone as thick as me can see the level of recruitment from top teams and how that Level is maintained. 

There are hard and fast rules if you want to be successful, you only have to look at Europe's top club's and how they do their business. 

3 hours ago, xceleryx said:

Yes, and as I detailed before we were hardly impressive during a lot of those years when it came to our domestic form. Often just scraping by or relying on other teams to help us out, hardly anything impressive about it. All while not looking remotely close to challenging for a title any time soon. Winning a few cup competitions was nice, but it doesn't change the bigger picture

You rinse and repeat strawman which I cannot be arse to answer. 

3 hours ago, xceleryx said:

Shows just how bitter you are towards ownership you cannot even bring yourself to acknowledging the clear plan we're undertaking. Whether you like or agree with it is irrelevant, it's still there. Which of course is to rebuild through high potential young players, eventually allowing us to have a strong foundation of talent that can be then built upon further with the addition of additional quality.  

This the same Pep that turned us down reportedly several times under Roman's reign, including once claiming he'd need like eleven new players?  So yeah, I'd also expect him to turn us down now when we're undertaking the sort of rebuild and project we are. Hardly shocking events. 

I don't know the answer to that, I don't work for the club to know the ins and outs of our financial situation and how our sustainability is to be forecasted and handled. What I do know though is that ownership certainly aren't going to sit on their hands and see their investment nestle itself at the bottom of the toilet bowl either. Given how they run their other sporting ventures, they'll spend and do what's needed to get a winning team on the park, given that's ultimately the best way for them to also generate maximum profits. 

A structure we lacked prior and played a big part in years of wayward spending and a decline in standards. City took years to get to where they are, as did Liverpool and Arsenal. Newcastle are slowly building themselves, and Tottenham could still very much go either way at this stage. None of them are comparable to our situation, with the exception of Arsenal to a degree. Rome wasn't built in a day, and it won't happen here either with  what we're undertaking.

Absolute gobbledygook

See earlier response on Chitty preparing for Pep. 

The past 3 transfer windows and the diversity say there is no plan, if fire fight window after window.  

[Bones]

3 hours ago, CarefreeMuratcan said:

If the players are regaled about what this fixture means for our Club, for the fans, for players past etc. and they fully take that message on board, I believe we will win.

No matter our current transitional period, the mental beast Spurs are playing against is Chelsea Football Club and our lads need to psychologically trick the Spurs players that it's the Chelsea of their nightmares turning up tonight. 

I like Ange, but damn I want us to win against them after his interview ridiculing our transfer spend.

[Proud-Blue]

7 hours ago, Rob B said:

I’d go with these 11 players.  
 

                                 Sanchez

James.          Silva            Badiashille.       Colwill

             Caicedo.      Enzo.     Gallagher

   Sterling.                Palmer.               Mudryk 

 

Not quite sure how you’d line them up in a formation,  but I guess Palmer as a false 9 because quite frankly, Jackson’s confidence is shot to pieces. 

The 4 central guys to get around Spurs midfield, and Sterling / Mudryk to stay high and wide to use their pace for transitions. 

Agree with this. The only thing I've been considering is whether we start James or not. If he can't play close to the full 90 I'd be a little concerned about basically knowing we have to sub him. It might be best to start Gusto.

It does also seem a little harsh to drop Cucurella given how well he has been playing, but I think we really need Badiashile back in the team.

Definitely Palmer over Jackson. I'm sure Jackson will improve but we can't be having those kinds of performances in this game.

I don't know why, but I'm oddly excited and mildly confident.

[Chelsea_Matt]

1 hour ago, Bones said:

I like Ange, but damn I want us to win against them after his interview ridiculing our transfer spend.

Even we do that sometimes my skeletal friend 💀 

Edited November 6, 2023 by Chelsea_Matt

[My Blood Is Blue]

I've got no expectations for this tonight, I just can't see us getting anything from the game, that is just the reality of where we are at the moment.

I expect us to perform better than we have in some other games, as the players will, hopefully, be up for this one and Tottenham won't just sit deep and ask us to try and break them down, however, as always the big concern is where the hell our goals will come from?!

I also don't really appreciate Poch's love in with his former club in the build up to the game. I understand he had great times at Tottenham and that he is just answering the questions being asked, but he could quite easily push the questions away and give answers along the lines of, that was then and it was a great time, but I am Chelsea now and I want to win with Chelsea, whoever the opponent etc. Maybe I'm overthinking it, but I'd rather we had a manager who wanted to go into battle with the enemy tonight rather than worry about what the opposition fans will think of him.

[paulw66]

27 minutes ago, My Blood Is Blue said:

Maybe I'm overthinking it, but I'd rather we had a manager who wanted to go into battle with the enemy tonight rather than worry about what the opposition fans will think of him.

He gets asked that exact question though.........I don't suppose he is worried one bit.

[Dwmh]

Arguably this is a season make or breaker and Poch should really be pushing the team to win at all costs - thumbs in eye, leg breakers the lot.
in which case i see Gallagher getting sent off and everyone else playing well within themselves.  
To be honest though, after the Blackburn game, we can only get better.

[Bones]

1 hour ago, Chelsea_Matt said:

Even we do that sometimes my skeletal friend 💀 

Yeah, but you know, you can have your own disagreements inside the house, but in public always defend your club! 💪

[asvaberg]

41 minutes ago, Dwmh said:

Arguably this is a season make or breaker and Poch should really be pushing the team to win at all costs - thumbs in eye, leg breakers the lot.
in which case i see Gallagher getting sent off and everyone else playing well within themselves.  
To be honest though, after the Blackburn game, we can only get better.

I'm walking around home in circles now, this afternoon. Anxious, worried, excited, optimistic, terrified - lots of motions. Feel that tonight's game outcome will decide if we will finish higher or lower than last reasons final table (terrible). Very naive, perhaps, but it's a massive opportunity to gain self respect, optimism and future hope for the team, the club and the fans. 

Come on you Blues! 

[Chelsea_Matt]

44 minutes ago, Bones said:

Yeah, but you know, you can have your own disagreements inside the house, but in public always defend your club! 💪

Not easy with some of the stuff Todd ‘n’ Eggy have done, though I will say it’s come from a good place. 

[Blue Moon]

Yeh, gonna make it a night to remember .... hopefully for the right reasons!

[Chelsea_Matt]

39 minutes ago, asvaberg said:

I'm walking around home in circles now, this afternoon. Anxious, worried, excited, optimistic, terrified - lots of motions. Feel that tonight's game outcome will decide if we will finish higher or lower than last reasons final table (terrible). Very naive, perhaps, but it's a massive opportunity to gain self respect, optimism and future hope for the team, the club and the fans. 

Come on you Blues! 

True. But we’re so inconsistent. We’ve been reduced to hoping tonight isn’t embarrassing.

[Ham]

Mudryk on the bench with Noni

 

[Sciatika]

[Max Fowler]

Our bench is painfully short of good options.

[asvaberg]

2 minutes ago, Max Fowler said:

Our bench is painfully short of good options.

Really? I think it's a rather strong bench. Gusto, Big Les and Mudryk are very strong, aren't they?

[Chelsea_Matt]

5 minutes ago, Max Fowler said:

Our bench is painfully short of good options.

No it isn’t. 🤣🤣🤣 look at it again, Max!

[east lower]

Tonight’s view from the game:

 

[Dwmh]

7 minutes ago, Max Fowler said:

Our bench is painfully short of good options.

Yes, at least good options if we aren't scoring.
Some may think Big Les is a good option, but only if a midfield of Gallagher, Caicedo and Enzot is being overrun which is unlikely to be the case.  The 4 defenders are all good options if (when) James gets injured).

But up front it is Madueke and Mudryk, one ineffectual and the other at his best counter-attacking.