Key events
31 min Unless the referee Anthony Taylor thought Sarr was trolling Cucurella by putting him back on the deck, in which case it’s clear ungentlemanly conduct.
30 min Sarr is booked for tripping Cucurella. It was a foul but a yellow card is really harsh.
29 min Free-kick to Chelsea 25 yards from goal, too wide for a shot. Fernandez overhits his ball to the far post and that’s the end of that.
27 min My colleague Daniel Harris poijnts out that Gary Neville knows how Cucurella feels after his shocker against Vasco da Gama in 2000. Paul Scholes, who missed the trip through injury, sent Neville a pithy, sympathetic text after the game, which read: ‘Fiasco da Gama’.
24 min: Just wide! Solanke turns Badiashile superbly just past the halfway line and plays a return pass to Son in the inside-left channel. He scurries into the area, moves inside Colwill and whips a trademark curler towards the top corner on the far side. Sanchez is beaten and the ball flashes just wide.
23 min This is glorious entertainment. Chelsea break three on a three after a stunning pass from Neto in his own area, but the last man Udogie makes a vital tackle on Jackson.
22 min Replays suggest that pass from Fernandez wasn’t touched by a Spurs player. Palmer fresh-aired the shot and the ball hit his standing leg. Bizarre.
21 min: Great chance for Palmer! Brilliant football from Chelsea again. Jackson, on the left side of the area, flicks the ball behind his standing leg to the overlapping Palmer. He gets his head up and picks out Palmer, who misses his kick eight yards from goal! That must have taken a nick off a Spurs defender; otherwise I can’t understand why he miskicked it.
Spurs break and Lavia is booked for a foul on Kulusevski.
20 min Almost another chance for Chelsea. They work the ball neatly through midfield, with Fernandez playing in the overlapping Sancho. His left-foot cross towards Jackson is overhit.
Sancho received the ball on the left touchline and zipped infield with purpose, roughly 20 yards from goal. He ran across Porro and then Dragusin before clipping a brilliant low drive across Forster. It hit the inside of the far post and ricocheted into the net.
That’s a beautiful goal and a timely reminder of a talent which, though unfulfilled, is unique in the English game.
GOAL! Tottenham 2-1 Chelsea (Sancho 18)
Oh-hoo we’ve got a game on here. Jadon Sancho has just rolled back the years to score a fantasic goal!
17 min We’ve seen players slip and concede goals before, most famously against Chelsea, but I can’t remember it happening twice to the same player in the same game. And certainly not in the first 11 minutes.
16 min “We, Chelsea fans, are on unfamiliar grounds,” says Krishnamoorthy V. “Did you just mention title race/title decider in your preamble? Please don’t jinx it. From desolate lands to a Cole Palmer XI to this unrecognizable winning machine is a transformation few saw coming. To be back in the top four (with City out of the top 4) is heady stuff indeed. Merry Christmas.”
I should stress I don’t think you can win it, but there are certain parallels with Antonio Conte’s first season. Even down to a 0-2 scoreline at Spurs!
14 min: Spurs substitution Cristian Romero’s return lasted less than 15 minutes. He’s pulled something – I think it was when he did that needless flick behind his standing leg – and is replaced by Radu Dragusin. The poor guy has his shirt over his face and looks devastated.
13 min Udogie drives just wide from the left edge of the six-yard box, though I’m pretty sure there was an offside in the build-up. Pretty sure but not certain as it’s hard to keep up with all this.
12 min After the goal Cucurella ran straight over to the touchline to change his footwear, shrugging his shoulders as if it was somebody else’s fault.
Imagine the [redacted]-eating grin on Gary Neville’s face right now.
Cucurella slipped again, just outside the area on the left. Spurs worked the ball infiel to Kulusevski, who ran across the line of the area and then reversed a shot towards the near post. It wasn’t particularly well struck but it went through the legs ofa defender and could not have been more precise.
GOAL! Tottenham 2-0 Chelsea (Kulusevksi 11)
Whether it’s Jekyll or Hyde, he’s rampant!
7 min Romero produces an indulgent and extremely risky flick inside his own area. He gets away with it in terms of keeping possession but he looks like he’s given himself a twinge.
Chelsea were building up just short of the halfway line when Colwill played a square pass to Cucurella. He slipped, allowing Johnson to nick possession and charge down the right. Johnson kept going and then crossed to the near post, where Solanke made a brilliant run across Colwill and stretched to poke the ball into the net. That net was empty because Sanchez had dalready dived for the cross, thinking Solanke couldn’t reach it.
Solanke was so sharp there, both in his movement and the decisiveness of the finish.
GOAL! Tottenham 1-0 Chelsea (Solanke 5)
Dominic Solanke scores against his old club after a slip from Marc Cucurella.
4 min Chelsea win a corner on the left. Palmer has to wait while Spurs fans throw a few things towards him. Eventually he takes it short, gets it back in and whips in a dangerous cross that is fractionally behind the leaping Colwill at the far post. His header flies across the other side of the field and is collected by Neto. The end.
3 min “Shouldn’t that be Spursy and Hyde?” says Joe Pearson. “Since Jekyll was sort of a milquetoast? Just asking.”
Are you suggesting I haven’t read Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1886 Gothic horror novella and am throwing literary references around willy-nilly without knowing what I’m talking about. Because you’d be right.
1 min A bad ball from Badiashile – a Benoit balls-up, if you’re a Goldie Lookin’ Chain fan – goes straight to Kulusevski 30 yards out. He’s slightly indecisive by his standards, eventually playing a pass outside to Johnson. His cross is deflected behind for a corner, from which nothing eventuates.
1 min Spurs kick off from right to left as we watch.
“Caicedo will invert in possession, playing next to Lavia,” says our man Jacob Steinberg. “Fernandez pushes on and it becomes a 3-2-5.”
The way we describe formations is outdated, isn’t it? I know this sounds a pretentious but you really need to list two formations – one with and without the ball. <Two Banks> Ideally 4-4-2 and 4-4-2 </Two Banks>
A reminder of the teams
Spurs (4-3-3) Forster; Pedro Porro, Romero, Van de Ven, Udogie; Kulusevski, Bissouma, Sarr; Johnson, Solanke, Son.
Substitutes: Austin, Reguilon, Dragusin, Spence, Maddison, Gray, Bergvall, Werner, Lankshear.
Chelsea (4-2-3-1) Sanchez; Caicedo, Badiashile, Colwill, Cucurella; Fernandez, Lavia; Neto, Palmer, Sancho; Jackson.
Substitutes: Jorgensen, Disasi, Adarabioyo, Gusto, Dewsbury-Hall, Veiga, Madueke, Felix, Nkunku.
Referee Anthony Taylor.
Enzo Maresca’s thoughts
Tottenham are a very good team with good players, a good squad and a good manager. Today they have Romero and Van de Ven, and for sure they are going to do well.
[On the chance to go within four points of Liverpool] It’s an opportunity because we can improve and these kinds of games tell us [how they can improve]. For me it’s no more than that. Our focus isn’t about Liverpool and City, it’s about us and how we can improve.
Ange Postecoglou’s pre-match thoughts
It’s a welcome boost for us [to have Romero and Van de Ven back]. We thought Micky would return next Thursday but he trained really well; both of them were really keen to play.
We’ve been in this position before when we’ve got a good result against a top side [after some poor results]. Irrespective, it’s a big game: it’s a derby, they’re in a good place and it’s a great test for us. Here at home, when we play our football, we’re hard to stop.
Having that energy with the fans at home can really help give you an edge. Sometimes we have to play our part too – we have to get them excited. Hopefully we can start the game well and put Chelsea on the back foot.
In an entirely precedented development, I was a bit dim when I looked at Chelsea’s team. Moises Caicedo, not Romeo Lavia, will start at right-back – partly to take good care of Son Heung-min, partly because he played there against Aston Villa last weekend and I definitely knew that and you can’t prove otherwise.
Chelsea (4-2-3-1) Sanchez; Caicedo, Badiashile, Colwill, Cucurella; Fernandez, Lavia; Neto, Palmer, Sancho; Jackson.
Substitutes: Jorgensen, Disasi, Adarabioyo, Gusto, Dewsbury-Hall, Veiga, Madueke, Felix, Nkunku.
A win today would move Chelsea within four points of Liverpool, albeit having played a game more. Who knows: Chelsea v Liverpool on 3 May could be an unlikely title decider.
There aren’t too many worries on that score
It’s already been a good day for Spurs and Chelsea, with their beloathed Arsenal’s title chances suffering a blow at Craven Cottage. These are the results from the 2pm games.
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Fulham 1-1 Arsenal
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Ipswich 1-2 Bournemouth
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Leicester 2-2 Brighton
Team news
Ange Postecoglou is able to pick Spurs’ best back four, with Pedro Porro, Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven all returning. Archie Gray, Radu Dragusin and Ben Davies drop out. The return of Son Heung-min is bad news for James Maddison, whose topsy-turvy season continues with a return to the bench. Dejan Kulusevski will move into midfield.
Enzo Maresca has made seven changes, and it looks like Romeo Lavia will play at right-back. The four players who started the 5-1 win at Southampton are the unrotatables: Marc Cucurella, Moises Caicedo, the in-form Enzo Fernandez and Cole Palmer.
Spurs (4-3-3) Forster; Pedro Porro, Romero, Van de Ven, Udogie; Kulusevski, Bissouma, Sarr; Johnson, Solanke, Son.
Substitutes: Austin, Reguilon, Dragusin, Spence, Maddison, Gray, Bergvall, Werner, Lankshear.
Chelsea (possible 4-2-3-1) Sanchez; Lavia, Badiashile, Colwill, Cucurella; Fernandez, Caicedo; Neto, Palmer, Sancho; Jackson.
Substitutes: Jorgensen, Disasi, Adarabioyo, Gusto, Dewsbury-Hall, Veiga, Madueke, Felix, Nkunku.
Referee Anthony Taylor.
Preamble
So, are Chelsea in this title race or what? We’ll have a better idea after today’s game, a really tricky/surprisingly easy trip to Tottenham Hotpsur Stadium.
The reason for the two options is the recent form of their opponents. The good news for Tottenham fans is that their team is no longer Spursy. The bad news is that they’ve become Jekyll and Spursy, capable of humiliating Manchester’s finest with exhilarating football on a good day or losing to, well, pretty much anyone on a bad day.
Ange Postecoglou’s row with an entitled empathy void at Bournemouth has increased the scrutiny ahead of today’s game, and his love affair with Spurs is starting to feel a bit Blue Valentine. Let’s hope not: as a neutral, Postecoglou’s team – and his repeated pleas for maturity in a drainingly infantile culture – add so much to the Premier League.
So do Enzo Maresca’s Chelsea. It helps having Cole Palmer, sure, but so far he’s done a pretty remarkable. Chelsea’s only defeats have been to Manchester City (pre-slump) and Liverpool and they’re already nine points better off than they were at the same stage last season. Just as importantly, given the nature of Chelsea FC in the 21st century, there has been almost no noise.
What Big Ange would give for a bit of peace and quiet. The best way to achieve that, now and forever, is to win football matches.
Kick off 4.30pm.
