Tottenham Hotspur took down Chelsea 2-1 in a preseason matchup that did not feel at all like a friendly, with even Spurs manager Roberto De Zerbi pointedly saying that there is nothing friendly about this kind of a rivalry game.
And it was Sandro Tonali who pulled Spurs ahead initially with a deflected goal from just outside the box. Yes, the defelction played a big role in the goal, but Tonali shooting and scoring in that position is a microcosm of exactly what De Zerbi pressed so hard to get Johan Lange and Vinai Venkatesham to spend 100 million pounds on the Italian international so that Spurs would have him - and not Arsenal or Manchester City.
Rodrigo Bentancur is one of De Zerbi's personal favorites and is highly unlikely to move, given the crucial role he played under the manager in keeping Spurs up at the end of the 2025/26 Premier League season.
Sandro Tonali offers Spurs huge promise
But for much of the 2025/26 campaign, Bentancur was a liability, and though he improved at the very end under the new manager, Spurs fans were appalled by how cowardly and sideways he was on the ball, which, well, was nothing new, seeing as how that was the key reason why Juventus did not buy into him in the first place.
Sandro Tonali is already showing exactly why he is worth triple Bentancur is on the open market, and that's because he has the athleticism and the mentality to play forward. In that same position, Bentancur would have taken on the shot maybe twice out of one hundred attempts, and numerous times throughout the game against Chelsea, Tonali drove the ball forward or made the progressive pass when, in those same situations, we saw Rodrigo Bentancur go the passive route time after time.
Even against the big teams, Tonali is not afraid to take the fight to the opponent, and while Bentancur is also a former Serie A champion, it's obvious the role Tonali played in lifting AC Milan in 2021/22 is a lot more impressive than Bentancur's work in the seasons he was a role player for the Bianconeri in their Scudetto triumphs at the beginning of his career.
Tottenham Hotspur have a lot invested in Tonali in terms of wages and transfer fee, and so there are going to be high expectations for him. But there are already glimpses that in terms of his quality and tactical improvement, he will be worth it for Spurs.
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