CHELSEA v Tottenham: Preview | OneFootball

Date: Sunday 29th November 2020

Venue: Stamford Bridge

Kick-off: 16:30 GMT

Chelsea’s 1000th game of the Roman Abramovich era sees us face Tottenham at Stamford Bridge.

Predictably there’s been much made of the ‘master’ vs ‘novice’, ‘most successful’ vs ‘aspiring’ in the run-in, but whoever the managers happen to be or how well they happen to know each other, the bottom line is, its Chelsea v Tottenham.

Spurs have a record to be ashamed of at Stamford Bridge, with just one win from their last 34 visits in any competition but even I have to admit there’s a different look to this season’s Tottenham side. They’ve won their last five in all competitions, with their latest being a 4-0 thumping of Ludogorets in the Europa League Thursday night following their win against City last weekend.

We come into the game 2 points behind Spurs in the league but in decent form ourselves, winning our last six in all competitions, including wins away at Newcastle last weekend and Rennes in the Champions League on Tuesday.

In fact, our last defeat of any kind was in September.

Unfortunately, it was Spurs who beat us.

MANAGER’S VIEWS

Going into today’s game, Chelsea manager, Frank Lampard, says “If you look at the spending over the last couple of seasons, what Tottenham did in the summer I came to Chelsea and what they’ve done in this break, compared to us, you will see it has been very similar.  The only thing that will get you success is hard work. The pressures are huge anyway. The pressures at Tottenham will be big, because Jose built a fantastic squad and has incredible players. We are both in the same position. We want success and people have expectations of us and we work towards that. But it’s very comparable if you look at their spending since I have been at Chelsea.

We all have pressures as managers. Jose was here as a manager, so he understands it. He went to Manchester United and would have understood the pressures there when you spend a lot of money. The pressures are huge.  It is very normal that a manager would try to take pressure off and make comments about how much pressure is on or not. We would both be jumping the gun to proclaim ourselves as anything at this stage of the season.”

Tottenham manager Jose Mourinho, meanwhile, says “What I felt is that was when I was in these clubs, there was huge pressure on me and now there is not huge pressure on the coaches of these teams. Put a little bit of pressure on them and leave us in peace, doing our job.

I was at clubs which were, let’s say, champions in the market because of the powerful investment in the market.  I had to deal with that pressure.  When you are favourites, you know why you are favourites. And you have to accept that, and you have to deal with that kind of pressure and responsibility.  But now it’s not for me to deal with that pressure. It’s for others to deal with that pressure. That’s not for us. We just want to try to win the next match and nothing more than that. We are not challenging for the title. We are challenging for the next match.  For the next match, we are not underdogs. For every match, we are never underdogs. For every match we try to win. We are always contenders to win the next match. Nothing more than that. We go there and our objective is to win the game.”

SQUAD NEWS

For Chelsea, Christian Pulisic (hamstring) is available after a month out but wouldn’t be an expected starter. Kai Havertz is also available for selection having recovered from Covid.

For Tottenham, Toby Alderweireld (groin) and Erik Lamela (Achilles) are absentees.

TEAMS

CHELSEA (Possible line-up): Mendy; James, Zouma, Silva, Chilwell; Havertz, Kante, Mount; Ziyech, Abraham, Werner

TOTTENHAM (Possible line-up): Lloris; Doherty, Rodon, Dier, Reguilon; Sissoko, Hojbjerg; Son, Ndombele, Bergwijn; Kane

LAST SEASON

Chelsea 2-1 Tottenham (22nd February 2020)

CURRENT FORM (PL)

CHELSEA: WDDWWW

TOTTENHAM: WDWWWW

OTHER STUFF

PREDICTION

Sky Sports: Chelsea 1-1 Tottenham

BBC Sport: Chelsea 2-1 Tottenham

Sportsmole: Chelsea 1-2 Tottenham