As he took stock of a third Tottenham defeat in 18 days against Chelsea back in January, Antonio Conte, a man for whom being competitive is a bare minimum, made a painful confession: “This club are on another level compared to us.”
It was an uncontroversial statement. Conte’s side were comprehensively outclassed in all three matches, failing to score in any of them.
A lack of goals has been a constant theme of Tottenham’s recent meetings with their London rivals. You could have watched the entirety of All or Nothing: Tottenham Hotspur followed by the Son Heung-min documentary Sonsational and had time to spare since Spurs’ last goal against the Blues.
It was scored by Erik Lamela in a Carabao Cup tie in September 2020 – a game more memorable for Eric Dier’s mid-game toilet dash than it was for a rare strike from Spurs’ beloved former s___house.
If Tottenham’s last goal against Chelsea was a long time ago, their last win in 90 minutes feels as though it happened in another lifetime.
Not since a 1-0 victory in January 2019 have Spurs beaten Chelsea in normal time, a sequence that spans 11 matches. A fair bit has happened since; seven of the starters that night have since moved on, as has the manager Mauricio Pochettino, and that game took place at Wembley with the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium still a few months away from its grand opening.
Considering the one-sided nature of the fixture and that Chelsea have spent upwards of £200m on established stars Raheem Sterling and Kalidou Koulibaly and one of the Premier League’s best left-backs, Marc Cucurella, since finishing above Spurs in last season’s table, one might suspect that they are red-hot favourites to extend Spurs’ misery this weekend.
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That would suggest that in a little over six months, Spurs have not only completely closed what was, to borrow a Conte-ism, an “important gap” but actually progressed beyond Thomas Tuchel’s side.
It feels premature to commit fully to that idea. This is Tottenham Hotspur Football Club we’re talking about. But there have been signs that the clubs have at least temporarily traded trajectories.
Since Conte’s first game in charge – a dreary 0-0 draw with Everton last November – Spurs have taken the third-most points in the Premier League and seven more than Chelsea in as many games.
They have scored more goals (51) than any other team in the division in 2022, largely due to the combination play of Harry Kane, Son, and Dejan Kulusevski and the growing influence of their assortment of wing-backs. Since 26 February, they have won 10 league games by two goals or more.
And Daniel Levy has sanctioned a summer spree that has strengthened the squad considerably. None of Spurs’ six summer signings started the opening day win against Southampton, but the arrivals of Ivan Perisic, Yves Bissouma, and Richarlison, in particular, have added quality, depth, and experience, in vital areas of the pitch.
Champions League music will soon be returning to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium for the first time since a Timo Werner penalty condemned them to defeat in February 2020. He has left RB Leipzig, won the competition with Chelsea and returned, in the intervening period.
Over at Stamford Bridge, the mood has lifted considerably since Todd Boehly’s acquisition ended uncertainty over the club’s short-term future and long-term existence. But the new regime has encountered teething problems.
Boehly’s decision to remove Roman Abramovich’s most trusted allies was a necessary move to usher the club into a new era, but it did shed considerable know-how in the process.
Chelsea were transfer window snipers under Marina Granovskaia but this summer’s approach has been notoriously scattergun, even if Sterling and Koulibaly appear to be smart recruits. They are still short of a top-class centre-back and possibly a striker.
Thomas Tuchel’s position seems secure, but for the first time during his Chelsea tenure there are whispers of discontent.
On the one hand, his wing-back system utilising Reece James and Ben Chilwell as marauding wide playmakers has proved near impossible to stop; on the other, there has been little evidence of an effective Plan B when either or both of that duo have been unavailable.
And unlike Conte, he hasn’t yet managed to find the magic formula up front as he approaches a century of games in charge. Many have been trialled, but only Mason Mount and at a push Kai Havertz, have shown any real consistency.
Despite enduring a difficult pre-season, Chelsea are a long way from joining Manchester United in full-blown crisis mode. They have a squad packed full of talent, an elite manager in place and three points on the board after last week’s win at Goodison Park, a ground at which they lost last season.
And more so than any other club in the country they have routinely managed to stop Kane and Son; Kane’s last goal against them was in January 2019, Son’s in November 2018. In that respect, they are the anti-Manchester City and an early acid test for Conte’s contenders.
Spurs took eight points from four matches against City and Liverpool in 2021-22, but a win against Chelsea on a ground where they have perenially come up short would throw down a significant marker.
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