Chelsea returned to winning ways with a 1-0 away victory over Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday evening.
The Blues love playing at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, winning six of their seven league games — against four different managers. Thomas Frank is the latest to lose to the Blues, and he has to shoulder most of the blame.
Tottenham’s gameplan was thrown out the window very early on as Lucas Bergvall had to go off due to a concussion. But Frank did not get his team to react in the right way. Joao Pedro gave Chelsea a deserved lead 10 minutes before half-time, and they held onto that advantage.
Chelsea now sit level on points with Tottenham in the table, only trailing on goal difference.
In this article, we’ll cover
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Tottenham’s toothless attack
Tottenham’s biggest problem on Saturday was their attack. If you could even call it one. Spurs were completely toothless and barely gave Robert Sanchez anything to do.
Randal Kolo Muani in particular cut a frustrated and isolated figure up top. The gameplan appeared to be to use him as a target man, not playing to his strengths at all.
The Frenchman had just 17 touches on the ball before his substitution in the 73rd minute, failing to have a single shot. But he wasn’t alone there.
Mohammed Kudus was the only Tottenham player to have a shot in the game, testing his luck three times in total. The first didn’t come until the 32nd minute, just the second time this season that Tottenham had failed to have a shot in the opening 25.
It took until the sixth minute of first-half injury time for Tottenham’s first shot on target, with Kudus forcing a good save from Sanchez. The third and final shot came in the 71st minute, but was blocked. Tottenham — well Kudus on his own — had just 0.15 Expected Goals on the night, compared to Chelsea’s 2.61.
Frank tried to remedy this in brining on Richarlison, Brennan Johnson and Wilson Odobert but they all failed to make an impact.
Chelsea force Tottenham into errors
Tottenham had problems at the other end of the pitch too. They were constantly pressed by Chelsea high up the pitch and couldn’t deal with it.
Frank’s side committed two errors leading to shots, both in the first half. It’s the fourth time in 10 games that they have made at least two errors leading to goals. Unforunately for the home support, one of those errors also led to a goal.
It was awarded to Micky van de Ven who was dispossessed in his own box by Moises Caicedo, who then set up Joao Pedro. Across the season, only Wolverhampton Wanderers (four) have made more errors leading to goals this season than Tottenham’s three.
But it wasn’t just errors leading to shots. Tottenham were misplacing easy passes, either giving the possession back to Chelsea or sending it out of play. Their 76.56% passing accuracy against Chelsea was their lowest in a single Premier League game this season.
Moises Caicedo’s midfield dominance
The main man of the show, at least from Chelsea’s side, was Moises Caicedo. The Ecuadorean struggled in Chelsea’s defeat to Sunderland last weekend, putting in one of his poorest displays in a Chelsea shirt.
But he was back on top form at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Caicedo got the assist for Joao Pedro’s opener, which on its own is always a good thing. But it’s the way the assist came about.
Caicedo won the ball high up the pitch and looked to attack, before a poor pass from Pedro Neto gave possession back to Tottenham. But Caciedo continued to press and won the ball again inside the Tottenham box, dispossessing Micky van de Ven. He kept hold of the ball before getting a pass off to Pedro, who coolly finished.
Caicedo ended the game with two tackles, four interceptions and six possessions won in the middle third. He also completed 30 of his 35 attempted passes, including 17 of his 23 in the final third. It was a fantastic display from one of the best midfielders in the Premier League.