Aside from modelling in New York and working in a cocktail bar during his playing days, one of the many quirks of Thomas Tuchel’s background was his early fascination with Chelsea’s biggest rivals.
“I heard the name Tottenham Hotspur, which sounded like a big adventure and gave me a big advantage playing with my friends because they had no idea where that club was,” the new Chelsea boss admitted.
“That was one of my first experiences. I didn’t even know it’s a club from London. But now I’m absolutely aware I work for their big rivals and you can be sure we will do everything we can to beat them.”
Since professing naivety in his early support for the Blues’ London adversaries, he has since become better acquainted with Spurs, on whom his Borussia Dortmund side inflicted a painful defeat in the 2015-16 Europa League.
Much of that team – Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and indeed Chelsea’s Christian Pulisic – subsequently moved to England, where Tuchel now finds himself up against an unfamiliar opponent in Jose Mourinho.
Of the Premier League managers he has faced before, the German has been pitted against his compatriot Jurgen Klopp 14 times, winning just twice. He has also met former Bayern Munich bosses Carlo Ancelotti and Pep Guardiola six and five times respectively, recording two victories over the Italian. He is yet to overcome Guardiola.
While Mourinho has never managed in the Bundesliga or Ligue 1, it seems strange that these two giants of Europe’s top table have not yet encountered one another. Tuchel stressed: “I strongly believe that it is Chelsea [against] Tottenham and not me against Jose.
“I am happy to compete against a really strong side with the quality and mentality we have right now… is it a clash of cultures? I don’t know, I think Jose is a winner and I want to be the same.”
There are other parallels between them; journalist Raphael Honigstein once called Tuchel “Mourinho minus the ego”, a reflection of his work ethic and intricate tactical knowledge.
Spurs were on the receiving end of the identity he stamped upon Dortmund in a tie that Mourinho’s predecessor, Mauricio Pochettino, did not seem to take altogether seriously. The Europa League seemed a nuisance, back then. Now it is one of the few irons in the embers of a fire which epitomises how Tottenham’s title challenge has very quickly petered out.
Of the starting XI who were beaten in the second leg at White Hart Lane five years ago, seven of them are still at the club: Hugo Lloris, Toby Alderweireld, Ben Davies, Eric Dier, Erik Lamela, Dele Alli and Son Heung-min. Harry Kane, Harry Winks and Danny Rose started on the bench.
‘You cannot compare the job at PSG’
If Spurs’ squad has been allowed to stagnate through the Pochettino years and into Mourinho’s reign, then there is no better contrast than in what has happened at Chelsea in recent weeks.
Mourinho sent a thinly-veiled warning to the top flight’s latest arrival that his title successes in France would mean little at Stamford Bridge. “You cannot compare the job at Paris Saint-Germain with a job in the Premier League,” he said. “It’s not possible to compare.”
Nor should the miserable winters of these two clubs really be likened, though it was noteworthy that Mourinho appeared to take a leaf out of Tuchel’s book in the 1-0 defeat to Brighton.
No sooner had Callum Hudson-Odoi been deployed as a right wing-back in successive games than Moussa Sissoko took on the same role as he replaced an exiled Serge Aurier at The Amex. The Ivorian will come back into the squad for Thursday’s match, having served his punishment for reportedly storming out at half-time after being substituted against Liverpool.
Whatever the plan was supposed to be on Sunday evening against Graham Potter’s side, it didn’t work. It was the seventh time in nine league games that Spurs have failed to win, despite having taken the lead in three of those draws.
As results worsen, Mourinho has shown a sudden willingness to bring in Alli from the cold, visiting him at home in light of his collapsed loan move to PSG and following confirmation that Giovani Lo Celso’s injury is more serious than was first thought.
It is far from an opportune time to play Chelsea, who can make their first big statement of the Tuchel era with a win at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Mourinho does not know Tuchel yet, but his new nemesis might just be his worst nightmare at the worst possible time.
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