Tottenham 3 Chelsea 4: Sancho shines as Spurs crumble and Maresca’s side go second in table

By Jack Pitt-Brooke, Jay Harris and more

Dec 9, 2024

330

Chelsea produced a brilliant comeback away to Tottenham Hotspur to move second in the Premier League and add to the pressure on Ange Postecoglou.

Tottenham took an early two-goal lead thanks to Dominic Solanke and Dejan Kulusevski but Chelsea reacted superbly, pulling a goal back through the impressive Jadon Sancho before half-time.

Cole Palmer added two penalties after the break, either side of Enzo Fernandez firing past the Tottenham goalkeeper Fraser Forster.

A goal late in added time from Son Heung-min made it 4-3, but that was too little too late, and the result leaves Tottenham in the bottom half of the Premier League table.

Liam Twomey, Jay Harris and Jack Pitt-Brooke analyse the key talking points from Chelsea’s 4-3 victory…

Chelsea played with a confidence verging on arrogance

Last season, Chelsea won 4-1 at this stadium and somehow managed to emerge from the experience bruised, even figures of fun in some quarters.

Postecoglou’s volatile Tottenham were flying high then, and appear to be on a very different arc now. But the nature of this comeback at the home of their arch-rivals — when was the last time Chelsea even fought back to win a game? — ensures they will get every inch of the credit they deserve.

Chelsea under Graham Potter or caretaker Frank Lampard would likely have collapsed completely in the face of Tottenham’s early storm. But Enzo Maresca’s side are made of considerably sterner stuff, and while they rode their luck at times here, they felt on track to turn the tide against Spurs long before Moises Caicedo won the penalty kick that tied the game.

Jadon Sancho gave them life with a sublime intervention in the 17th minute, silencing the home crowd with a sharp run infield from the left and a shot like a dagger in off the far post.

From then on, Chelsea applied sustained pressure, and with every extended stretch of defending Tottenham’s audible anxiety grew.

Sancho’s goal kickstarted Chelsea’s comeback (Shaun Brooks – CameraSport via Getty Images)

Maresca’s half-time reshuffle solidified their dominance. Romeo Lavia had produced some brilliant passes in the opening 45 minutes but introducing Malo Gusto and shifting Benoit Badiashile over to the left side of central defence removed the corridor of uncertainty that Spurs had exploited to such great effect in the opening minutes.

Chelsea played with a confidence bordering on arrogance from then on, pinning Spurs back and pulling them into uncomfortable areas that, eventually, led to fatal mistakes.

Fernandez’s emphatic half-volley — his third goal in four matches from midfield — simply confirmed the dynamic of the game and Palmer’s Panenka penalty was as brilliant as it was utterly disrespectful.

Chelsea turned what could have been a damaging setback into another victory over their favourite punching bags, and questions of a surprise Premier League title challenge will keep coming.

Liam Twomey

This was painful deja vu for Spurs fans

So far this season, Spurs have alternated between giddy highs and painful lows. Today, they managed both in the same match. The football that Tottenham played in the first 35 minutes or so was scintillating, as they raced into an early 2-0 lead. It felt like it might be a repeat of the 4-0 win at Manchester City last month.

But Spurs collapsed and lost 4-3. As Spurs players kept getting injured and Chelsea kept scoring, it all felt eerily similar to the 4-1 defeat in this fixture last November. When Palmer converted his second penalty, some Spurs fans started to boo, others started to leave.

Many fans will ask why Spurs are stuck with the same problems now as they were one year ago, and whether the variance in performances might ever be reduced to more manageable levels.

It is all very well playing dazzling football in spells but this was Spurs’ seventh league defeat of the season. They have only played 15 games.

Jack Pitt-Brooke

Did Cucurella recover from his boot drama?

Premier League history was made at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday: for the first time in the competition’s history, a pair of football boots were hooked well before half-time.

There is no telling whether Marc Cucurella would have acted quite so decisively had both of his slips in the first 11 minutes not swiftly resulted in Tottenham goals, but his immediate reaction to seeing Kulusevski’s low shot creep beyond Robert Sanchez was to hold up the offending boot in anguished gesticulation towards the Chelsea dugout.

To the kitman’s credit, a fresh pair were immediately available and the fact that Cucurella did not slip again supports the idea that it was no mere excuse.

GO DEEPER

The secret world of football boots

Tottenham’s ruthless finishing was harsh on Cucurella, who has been one of Chelsea’s better and more consistent performers this season — but he did not let it define his game.

Cucurella had already begun to exert a more positive influence in the remainder of the first half, moving the ball on quickly and accurately to Sancho to cut infield from the left and curl in the brilliant goal that gave Chelsea life before the interval.

In the second half, his attacking role grew as Maresca’s tactical reshuffle required him to invert into an advanced midfield position. Tottenham had trouble tracking his movement and he continued to dovetail effectively with Sancho on the left, where Chelsea did most of their best work in possession.

By the end of the game, Cucurella was back exactly where he wanted to be on a match day: being booed rather than gleefully jeered by opposition supporters.

Liam Twomey

Yet more injuries compound Tottenham’s misery

There was a surprise twist when the line-ups were announced as Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero both started for Spurs. Romero only returned to full training on Friday, while the last time Postecoglou gave an update on Van de Ven’s fitness, he said he would be back by “mid-December”.

It was a huge boost for Spurs but things quickly went wrong when Romero pulled up injured shortly after Dejan Kulusevski made it 2-0 after 10 minutes. The centre-back went down on the floor with his hands over his face. He walked off the pitch with his shirt over his head and looked close to tears.

Romero picked up another injury (Marc Atkins/Getty Images)

Van de Ven made a couple of exceptional tackles on his return from over a month out with a hamstring injury but only lasted until the 78th minute. The Netherlands international went down on the floor and the medical staff stretched his right leg but he had to be replaced by Archie Gray. It was a bold gamble to start them both and it backfired.

To make matters even worse, Brennan Johnson picked up an injury a few minutes into the second half, too. The 23-year-old went down just outside Chelsea’s box, tried to stand up and continue but was replaced by Timo Werner.

When Maresca could bring Christopher Nkunku, Joao Felix, Noni Madueke and Malo Gusto off the bench, Postecoglou had to turn to Werner, James Maddison and two teenagers in Gray and Lucas Bergvall. Tottenham are down to the bare bones for the busiest period of the season. The lack of options and quality in the squad has left them in a precarious position.

Jay Harris