Tottenham Hotspur botched a golden opportunity to put some breathing room between themselves and rivals West Ham United in this heated Premier League relegation battle, but they cannot rue on missed opporunities, mistakes, or controversial calls from the 1-1 draw with Leeds United.
Spurs must move forward with a resolve to fix what went wrong and get a result, because they will need to get a result against one of their big rivals who embarrassed them earlier this season under Thomas Frank, Chelsea. The Blues have been far from impressive lately, but they are a dangerous, wounded beast fightin from ninth place for a spot in European football next season.
Tottenham will face Chelsea on Tuesday night next week with plenty of rest to recuperate, and they will have a great equalizer in their tow in James Maddison, who was able to make his return for a few minutes at the end of the match.
James Maddison is a key weapon for Spurs
It was not enough time to truly make an impact and turn the game, but everyone from the Tottenham Hotspur side watching Maddison out there was both very happy to see the leader on the pitch - and had to come away with the impression that he is indeed a class above all the other midfielders at the club.
Tottenham were able to get good results with Rodrigo Bentancur and Conor Gallagher as leading men in the midfield, but especially with Xavi Simons down with a torn ACL, the quality of James Maddison as an attacking midfielder and a secondary source of goals with how poorly the strikers are playing is going to be massive, especially against an opponent the caliber of Chelsea.
Having Maddison back healthy is a really big deal, and even though he only got a few minutes against Leeds United and may only be ready for 30 minutes - even if not 60 and certainly not the full 90 - against the Blues is enough of an upgrade and enough time on the pitch to make a difference.
Because Maddison is the caliber of player with his vision, experience, understanding of the game, and technical quality to turn a critical rivalry match of this magnitude in the relegation fight on its head in a moment's notice.
Tottenham have been missing that quality of Maddison's around the box all season, even when they had Mohammed Kudus and Xavi Simons healthy together. James Maddison showed the touch on the ball and overall quality in a mere few minutes against Leeds to give Spurs hope, and now he is here to help them get the result they need vs. Chelsea.