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Tottenham Hotspur Match Reports
Chelsea 1-0 Tottenham Hotspur: Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh
This felt like a foregone conclusion, didn’t it?
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Matches between Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea, especially ones at Stamford Bridge, are rarely fun experiences. This one wasn’t either. Tottenham narrowly lost away to Chelsea thanks to a second half header from Enzo Fernandes.
Both sides had a goal ruled out — Caicedo had a hammer of a goal called back after Levi Colwill was ajudged to be (barely) offside, and Pape Sarr had a second half blast ruled out after he fouled Caicedo in the buildup to the goal. Tottenham also had a potential penalty kick after Sarr was kicked inside the box waved away by match official Craig Pawson and VAR.
The final score was 1-0, which I suppose feels right? I dunno. I hate this fixture, and losing at Stamford Bridge almost feels like a foregone conclusion. Whatever, here are my notes from the match.
Match Reactions:
Well, that match went pretty much the way I expected it to go — a Chelsea goal, some controversial VAR decisions, some fisticuffs, a bunch of yellow cards, and a narrow loss.
That opening near own-goal was scary as hell but somehow would’ve been an appropriate thing to happen in this fixture, I feel like there’s at least one insane play like this in every game at the Bridge.
Chelsea got forward so quickly in this match. Hard to tell if they really attack that fast or if it’s just because Tottenham don’t have a midfield. Probably a little of both?
We’ve been waiting a long time to see what a (nearly) full strength Tottenham would look like, and based on the first half — pretty disappointing! Huge gaps in the midfield, rusty players, and what looked like a pretty damning lack of organization. Not very encouraging stuff.
A rough start for the defense — both Cuti and Micky looked rusty and Nico Jackson kind of had his way with both of them. Fortunate not to concede in the first half hour, but they both started to settle in a bit more towards the end of the first half.
Djed Spence started on the right tonight and he looked weirdly uncomfortable in his natural position. His worst half in a long time.
On a positive, Bergvall was quite possibly Spurs’ best player on the day. Had a real bounce to his step, looked composed at the six, was getting into good positions. Promising stuff. Wish he had stayed on longer, maybe some lingering effects from the virus he had on international duty?
It’s not a Battle at the Bridge without at least one fight, and of course Cuti was involved. That said, Levi Colwill was holding onto the ball after the free kick, milked the hell out of that incident and should’ve gotten a yellow for simulation.
Enzo’s goal was just way, way too easy. Super frustrating, especially since that was Micky’s man whom he left open to go double another player.
VAR is good again — super duper close decision, but ultimately the right one. Shame it took four minutes. But still a good result because that Caicedo shot was an absolute hit.
When Pape’s shot went in I let out an audible shriek from my desk at work and then was afraid that my co-workers overheard it. Shame that he fouled Caicedo — I hate it but that was the right call. I don’t know if I like the rule about assigning yellow cards after VAR review.
Micky took a knock late and was limping a bit before being subbed off (Djed at CB?). Hopefully it’s nothing serious but, you know...
On the whole, this was a mixed bag. Spurs have certainly played WORSE, and had a few moments of genuine good play, but they weren’t good enough to win in a very hostile environment against a better team.
