Analysis: Chelsea

Maurizio Sarri set his Chelsea team up in their familiar 4-3-3 formation, with Jorginho operating as a lone pivot behind fellow midfielders N’Golo Kante and Mateo Kovacic. But with pressure mounting on their back line in the opening exchanges, they looked for lone forward Alvaro Morata with direct long balls. Morata drifted across towards the wide area, hoping to link with his teammate on that side, after winning the first contact. From here, Chelsea could penetrate into Tottenham’s half – but they failed to create quality openings as Spurs were too often quicker to the second ball.

As they eventually enjoyed more consistent possession, the visitors remained insistent on building and attacking through the central lane. Even when up against Tottenham’s congested central midfield diamond, both wingers – Willian and Eden Hazard – repeatedly cut inside with the ball, or moved inside to receive vertical passes. Even with that pair’s quick feet, though, space was too tight for Chelsea to consistently progress the ball forward. They found some success when forcing Tottenham to restart with longer balls, as Hazard and co could then find more central space on the break – but Morata’s lack of awareness and smart movement from the home defence resulted in a succession of offside calls that broke any Chelsea momentum.

In the second half, the visitors used more direct play – this helped avoid the congested central lane, with Willian in particular making effective blind-side runs across the Tottenham back line. At 2-0 down, they also pushed both full-backs forward in an attempt to horizontally stretch the hosts’ defence – but this left them exposed to the type of counter-attack from which Spurs scored their third.

Having replaced Morata and Kovacic with Ross Barkley and Pedro, and moved Hazard into a central attacking role, Chelsea ended their direct approach and instead looked to build with short passes into midfield. From here, they were reasonably successful in moving the ball into the final third, but with Kante as a late runner to support Pedro and Hazard as they combined from the right, moves often broke down. The French World Cup winner is defensively superb but perhaps not suited to the role he currently has in this team – something that may continue to trouble Sarri, whose side got one back from the head of substitute Olivier Giroud late on.

Chelsea’s defensive press, particularly from midfield, was disorganised and lacked any form of aggression. They lacked numbers when pressing high, as the distance between their units was too great. The hosts were able to use chipped passes over various units, with Son Heung-min and Dele Alli repeatedly penetrating in behind with well-timed forward runs. Even when they did manage to regain possession, they struggled on the counter, with Tottenham’s double pivot of Moussa Sissoko and Eric Dier blocking immediate access into the Chelsea front line. This only got harder as the hosts went two goals up and dropped their full-backs into more reserved positions.

The away side eventually found some form of success by starting much higher during Tottenham’s goal-kicks. From here, Hugo Lloris was forced into longer deliveries, with Dier and Sissoko – Tottenham’s two strongest midfielder ball-winners – into more advanced positions. Should the Chelsea back line win the first contact, Hazard and Willian finally had central space to attack; a resulting low drive from the latter was the best effort they mustered to that point.

In the second period, Chelsea’s intensity increased – as did their successful regains of the ball, particularly from Kante. However, Spurs dropped into a deeper mid-block than in the first half, meaning Chelsea’s defence was most required during moments of transition. With both full-backs pushed higher to help build around the congested central lane, Jorginho – marked superbly by Alli – was left to drop into the back line alongside David Luiz and Antonio Rudiger. This strategy did make sense, but it collapsed as Son’s devastating burst of pace exposed Jorginho down the right channel and led to the goal that effectively killed the game.