Tottenham's tactics after going down to 9-men in 1-4 loss to Chelsea were insane | OneFootball

Forget the ‘Battle of the Bridge’ in 2016, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur’s latest Premier League encounter had everything: five goals, two red cards and Ange Postecoglou playing a 0-7-1 formation when down to nine men. The home side kicked proceedings off perfectly and picked up their first – and eventually – only goal of the affair as Dejan Kulusevski wrong-footed Robert Sanchez as the Swede’s goal-bound effort came off Levi Colwill. Son Heung-min then thought he had doubled the hosts’ cushion moments later before a VAR review resulted in the goal being chalked off for offside.

Two goals for Chelsea courtesy of Raheem Sterling and Moises Caicedo were then ruled out for a foul in the build-up and offside, respectively – but fortunes were just about to swing in the favour of Mauricio Pochettino’s side as Cristian Romero’s studs-up challenge on his compatriot Enzo Fernandez saw Spurs reduced to ten men.

Cole Palmer, who joined the Blues in the summer, slotted home the resulting penalty, while Tottenham’s star duo of Micky van de Ven and James Maddison were taken off during the first half’s added time with a duo of injuries – and by this point, it seemed like a mountainous effort was needed from Postecoglou’s men. Though, when defender Destiny Udogie received his second yellow card of the feisty encounter, the Greek-Australian boss was forced to line his side up in quite an unorthodox manner.

Postecoglou deploys unorthodox 0-7-1 formation

It seems like Ange-ball never stops, regardless of how few players remain on the pitch for the former Celtic custodian. With the score level at 1-1 and both sides chasing a winner, Postecoglou’s approach never flailed and their likelihood to score another certainly did not look off the cards. However, all you need to do is take one look at his tactics as his team were down to nine men, and you can only imagine how much joy was rushing around the heads of Pochettino and his entourage.

His never-seen-before 0-7-1 formation was going relatively swimmingly until the 75th minute, when it all came crashing down. Nicolas Jackson, who has struggled to find a run of form, came out of nowhere with a trio of goals to put an unthinkable win out of Tottenham’s reach.

The Senegalese striker, alongside his forward-thinking teammates made the most of Postecoglou’s extremely high line, one that former Spurs centre-back Jan Vertonghen even had to comment on. The Belgian stalwart, who played an impressive 313 times in Tottenham colours, took to X (formerly Twitter) to share his concern over Postecoglou’s tactics.

And we’re inclined to agree. Not only is it quite possibly the highest defensive line but also one of the craziest. You can only really applaud Postecoglou and his crop of players for his never-say-die attitude and while many Premier League managers may have reverted to dropping deep and bringing on a litany of defensive-minded players, not on Big Ange’s watch.

Jamie Carragher's reaction to Postecoglou's crazy tactics

And Vertonghen wasn't the only one who couldn't believe what he was watching. Jamie Carragher, covering the game for Sky Sports' Monday Night Football, was also quick to praise Tottenham's bravery after the game. The former Liverpool centre-back described the defensive formation as his, "favourite clip" from the match, still in disbelief over what he had just seen.

Unfortunately for Spurs, their bravery did eventually become their undoing, as they picked up their first loss of the season against their London rivals. They will be hoping to bounce back from a disappointing defeat when they come up against Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday.