“This man is an artist” – Player ratings as tempers flare while Chelsea and Spurs draw in Battle of the Bridge 2
In a wild and wonderful afternoon of football, Chelsea and Spurs played out a dramatic 2-2 draw at Stamford Bridge.
The Blues were dominant throughout but Conte’s Spurs showed great resilience to pick up a precious point from Tuchel’s Chelsea, with both managers seeing red at full-time for causing a fracas with their handshake. This was pure, unrelenting Barclays.
Here’s how the players rated at Stamford Bridge:
Chelsea
Edouard Mendy – 7 – Outstanding save in stoppage time to prevent a second Spurs goal. Helpless on their first.
Reece James – 8 – A magnificent performance in a hybrid role. Shut Heung-min Son out of the first hour, attempted and completed the most passes in the game, created a sitter for Kai Havertz and scored a go-ahead goal late in the day. Even found time to unintentionally deflect Harry Kane’s late equaliser into his own net.
Thiago Silva – 7 – Looked relatively untroubled as he so often does, although it was notable that when Spurs actually ran at him with pace (admittedly this only happened once) he was found wanting.
Kalidou Koulibaly – 8 – A masterclass on his home Premier League debut. Shut down every attack down his flank and hammered in a storming volley to open the scoring and won the ball back in the build-up to Chelsea’s second. His passing was perfect and no one won more tackles than his 4. Was close to stopping both Spurs goals, but fell just short in both instances. Despite what some pundits think, this man is an artist and we are lucky to have him in the Premier League.
All three of the Chelsea starters that made their home Premier League debuts today were directly involved in a goal against Tottenham:
Kalidou Koulibaly: ⚽
Marc Cucurella: 🅰️
Raheem Sterling: 🅰️A positive sign. pic.twitter.com/HoNDUE5sPB
— Squawka (@Squawka) August 14, 2022
Ruben Loftus-Cheek – 6 – A superb dribbling display but ultimately produced very little else.
Jorginho – 4 – Pinged the ball around the field for fun, but then ruined his display with an awful attempt at some skill inside his own box, giving the ball away and leading directly to Spurs’ first goal. Thomas Tuchel subbed him off almost straight away, so he wasn’t pleased either.
N’Golo Kanté – 9 – Simply flawless. Floated around the field looking every inch like he did back in his 2015-2018 and then 2021 peak. Spurs couldn’t handle him at all, he played a key pass for Chelsea’s second goal, and the game never really swung their way until Kante had to leave the field with what looked like a hamstring injury. Everyone will be hoping that he isn’t seriously hurt.
Marc Cucurella – 7 – Didn’t really create too much but worked his socks off and pinged a supreme corner in for Chelsea’s opener.
Mason Mount – 5 – Worked hard and made some nice runs but didn’t really use the ball nicely.
Raheem Sterling – 5 – As always with Sterling his movement was magical and his finishing was foul. Missed a sitter to make it 2-0. Made up for that slightly by setting up Reece James for Chelsea’s second but is going to need to be more clinical for the Blues.
Kai Havertz – 5 – Has all the technical, tactical and physical skills needed to be one of the best players in the actual world. Yet he somehow just… isn’t? There’s something missing both today and in general, although he was surely fouled in the lead-up to Spurs’ first equaliser?
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Chelsea Substitutes:
Cesar Azpilicueta (for Jorginho 73′) – 6 – Helped reorganise and regroup his team.
Christian Pulisic (for Sterling 84′) – n/a – Came on late.
Conor Gallagher (for Kante 85′) – 6 – Came on late but ran himself ragged in his brief time on the field and had two half-chances to maybe make an impact in the final third.
Armando Broja (for Havertz 90′) – n/a – Came on late.
Find the latest Premier League winner odds for the 2024/2025 season here:
PREMIER LEAGUE TITLE ODDS |
|||||||
Club | Sky Bet | ||||||
Man City | 6/5 | ||||||
Arsenal | 7/4 | ||||||
Liverpool | 15/2 | ||||||
Chelsea | 16/1 | ||||||
Man Utd | 22/1 | ||||||
Tottenham | 28/1 | ||||||
Newcastle | 33/1 | ||||||
Aston Villa | 66/1 |
You have to be 18+ to gamble. All odds within this article are accurate at the time of writing (09:00, 15/07/2024). GambleAware.
Spurs
Hugo Lloris – 6 – Faced three shots on target and conceded two goals.
Cristian Romero – 8 – Magnificent. A game-high 7 tackles plus an impressive 5 clearances as well. Although it’s worth pointing out that his 90th minute hair pull on Marc Cucurella was a stick-on second yellow or perhaps even a straight red and almost certainly would have resulted in a game-ending free-kick for Chelsea. How he got away with that one only he will know.
Cuti Romero for Tottenham vs. Chelsea:
◉ Most duels won (10)
◉= Most possession won (8)
◉ Most tackles (7)
◉= Most take-ons (2)Always getting stuck in. 💪 pic.twitter.com/IZA6UPzVOb
— Squawka (@Squawka) August 14, 2022
Eric Dier – 7 – Decent at the back, although you suspect that if Chelsea had better forwards he could have been exposed.
Ben Davies – 5 – Was actually playing really well, with a game-high 8 clearances as well as 4 tackles. However he threw that all away by being absolutely nowhere to be seen on Chelsea’s second goal, collapsing too narrow and leaving Reece James all alone to score.
Emerson Royal – 5 – He works hard but he’s just not very good, is he? Great haircut, mind.
Pierre Emile Hojbjerg – 7 – Was given the run-aroud by N’Golo Kanté but lasered a wonderful equaliser in for Spurs.
Rodrigo Bentancur – 6 – Bossed by the Chelsea midfield. Committed a foul ahead of Spurs’ first equaliser.
Most points won in the Premier League since Antonio Conte took over at Tottenham:
◎ 76- Man City
◎ 71 – Liverpool
◉ 60 – Tottenham
◎ 58 – Arsenal
◎ 52 – ChelseaNow it's time to close the gap on the top two. 💪 pic.twitter.com/kGhP3LATQ0
— Squawka (@Squawka) August 14, 2022
Ryan Sessegnon – 5 – Wasn’t terrible, but wasn’t good either. Mostly a non-event.
Dejan Kulusevski – 6 – Some quality dribbling but it led to nothing.
Heung-min Son – 4 – Got put in a box by Reece James and never really got let out.
Harry Kane – 7 – Some delightful balls into the box early on. A wicked run married by a miserable finish looked like it was going to be a problem for Spurs but as ever Kane found a way to get it done, rising high to head home a dramatic equaliser in stoppage time.
Tottenham scored more goals at Stamford Bridge this evening (2) than in their previous seven games against Chelsea combined (1). 🤯
— Squawka (@Squawka) August 14, 2022
Spurs Substitutes:
Richarlison (for Sessegnon 57′) – 6 – Ran hard but looked a bit out of sync with his team-mates.
Yves Bissouma (for Bentancur 79′) – 6 – A mostly middling cameo but it was his deflected shot that led to the late equaliser.
Ivan Perisic (for Son 79′) – 6 – Initially his set-pieces were horrible and his crosss were poor but then he produced a peach of a delivery for the late equaliser.
Lucas Moura (for Emerson 82′) – n/a – Came on late.