In a chaotic game between the London clubs at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Chelsea prevailed in a five-goal thriller, which included two red cards, many VAR decisions and a late hat-trick from Nicolas Jackson.
With Chelsea earning a huge three points from this 4-1 win, we are going to look at what they did well, how Spurs impressed for the opening 20 minutes, and what ended up being their downfall as the game went on.
Tottenham's opening 20 minutes
For the opening 20 minutes, Chelsea struggled to handle the inverted full backs of Spurs, who took up the central zones of the pitch with Pape Sarr and James Maddison dropping off deeper. This then allowed Tottenham to create two-on-one double-ups when attacking down the flanks and switching the play to attack those scenarios, leading to their opening goal.
Reece James and Levi Colwill were unsure whether to follow the full backs inside, or stick with the wingers when they created these overloads and therefore Spurs began to forge chances through this.
However, after a good opening 20 minutes from Spurs, hunting these two-on-ones and playing to their advantage, Chelsea managed to turn the game into more of a battle of duels, and this came especially after a challenge from Destiny Udogie where he escaped with a yellow card from a rather rash two-footed challenge.
This looked to spur Chelsea on, winning duels higher up the pitch and creating chances which eventually led to a penalty and a red card for Cristian Romero. The penalty was converted by Cole Palmer and this game then became very different with a 1-1 scoreline and Spurs down to 10 men.
Chelsea's game plan
Chelsea set up in a 4-2-3-1 with Conor Gallagher higher up in the number 10 role for Chelsea to press from the front and a double pivot behind him of Enzo Fernandez and Moises Caicedo.
The Blues looked to press high in the opening 20 minutes, which seemed to leave big gaps behind the midfield pivot for the inverted full backs of Spurs to drift into and cause problems. However, once the game became more duel-based, the midfield trio started to win tackles, especially Gallagher and Caicedo higher up the pitch, creating chances with less actions for Chelsea and leading to the penalty.
Palmer and Raheem Sterling were also important in pressing from the front, looking to stop the pass into Maddison and Sarr, so forcing them to bypass the midfield and look in beyond to the inverted fullbacks and wingers which Chelsea eventually started to cut out.
This game was clearly an anomaly-type fixture, where many factors affected the match state and therefore the tactical approach for both teams. However, the most intriguing point from this game came when Udogie was sent off, and Spurs went down to 9 men.
Tottenham's nine-man high line
The biggest talking point from this game is definitely the tactical impetus of Ange Postecoglou's Tottenham, who continued to press high and play an extremely high defensive line even when they were down to nine men.
This saw Chelsea frustrated, as they looked to force balls in behind with Spurs either stepping up and playing an offside trap, or cutting the passes out. Spurs goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario was also excellent in this period of the game, sweeping really well and cutting out a lot of balls in behind.
However in the end, through the sheer volume of passes in behind Chelsea were playing, they managed to create several chances, which eventually saw them take a 2-1 lead when Sterling broke the offside trap and ran in behind, squaring the ball to Jackson.
This then saw two more goals follow for Jackson, beating the defensive line on two more occasions with balls in behind, and making the game 4-1.
Postecoglou's philosophy stood out in this one, as they continued to press high and play a high line with 10 men and nine men, rather than setting up to take the 1-1 draw despite their disadvantage in the game. It looks like Spurs will continue to do this throughout the season, regardless of the game state and opponent, which could lead to some more freak results as the season goes on, both in their favour and against them.
Conclusion
In conclusion, once the game intensified, it became more about individual battles, some referee decisions and perseverance from Chelsea late in the game to get the result.
It was a deserved result for Chelsea, however the worry going forward will be their ability to convert chances and take comfortable leads in games, to avoid dropping unnecessary points such as the 2-2 draw with Arsenal following a late mistake from Robert Sanchez giving the Gunners a reason to push for the draw, and firing them up.
Managing the game state at crucial points is the next learning curve for this young Chelsea group, knowing when to settle down and keep the ball moving, and knowing when to put the game to bed - which also needs a higher quality of finishing than Chelsea have seen so far this season.
