Just watched again the first half from the November match and I must say, it was our worst display in a while. Pedro's wonder strike couldn't have come at a better moment and we were lucky we were only down a goal at the time.

What I noticed was how aggressively and quickly Spurs were pressing and closing us down, with 7-8 (!) players  in our own half, not allowing us to build from the back, forcing mistakes. They pass the ball fast and bypassed our midfield easily with Dembele dominating our CMs. Good thing, they only managed to score once, but that was not a pleasant sight.

I hope Conte has learned from that and has a different tactical plan in mind because we clearly don't match up well against this Spurs side in some important areas. They have very quick and athletic fullbacks and they'll be looking to explore our left side of defence, particularly Alonso. I think we'll have to look for alternative ways to organize our attack, including long balls to Costa, with Hazard and Pedro feed

ing on his knockbacks. We also have to absolutely cut down on losing the ball in our own half because of the speed of the opposition.

It's going to be a tough one.

Edited January 4, 20179 yr by abramovich

1 minute ago, abramovich said:

Just watched again the first half from the November match and I must say, it was our worst display in a while. Pedro's wonder strike couldn't have come at a better moment and we were lucky we were only down a goal at the time.

What I noticed was how aggressively and quickly Spurs were pressing and closing us down, with 7-8 (!) players  in our own half, not allowing us to build from the back, forcing mistakes. They pass the ball fast and bypassed our midfield easily with Dembele dominating our CMs. Good thing, they only managed to score once, but that was not a pleasant sight.

I hope Conte has learned from that and has a different tactical plan in mind because we clearly don't match up well against this Spurs side in some important areas. They have very quick and athletic fullbacks and they'll be looking to explore our left side of defence, particularly Alonso. I think we''l have to look for alternative ways to organize our attack, including long balls to Costa, with Hazard and Pedro feeing on his knockbacks. We also have to absolutely cut down on losing the ball in our own half because of the speed of the opposition.

It's going to be a tough one.

Yeah I remember us getting swamped in that first half and we were lucky to get out at 1-1 at HT.

Conte is a smart manager, I think he will demand we don't start like that tonight.

No red cards? You ask too much sir. The white hot crowd, pun intended, Spurs players being all up in our faces and the refs, I just don't see this ref being able to handle that. Which is where my fear of the next charge and a points deduction comes from. 

10 minutes ago, abramovich said:

I think we''l have to look for alternative ways to organize our attack, including long balls to Costa, with Hazard and Pedro feeing on his knockbacks. We also have to absolutely cut down on losing the ball in our own half because of the speed of the opposition.

I agree. I hope if we are under the same amount of pressure early on tonight that we punt the ball forwards towards Costa who can take the fight with Tottenhams CBs. Hopefully Luiz can be the main guy to do that as well as he has tremendous range and can find Costa from anywhere.

Who is the ref for this game??

44 minutes ago, Zeta Orionis said:

I'd rather the own goal be from Delle Ali. He's got such a punchable face. Whereas Harry Kane sounds like someone's already knocked him out at some point.

I thought Harry Kane was a member of Mensa  (dum dum cha)

It would obviously be good to win, but we don't need to rush it as even a draw would be a ok result for us. Spurs will probably go all out like City and they could have face the same destiny as them. If we win we are truly on the high horse and i don't see us dropping the number one spot. People think with a defeat we would crumble, why would we? the team mentality is immense and we will show it tonight.

BUZZIN C'MON YOU MIGHTY BLUES

They will not end our winning run but we will end their run of not losing at home this season. We shall win. KTBFFH 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2017/01/04/tottenham-hotspur-vs-chelsea-live-premier-league-updates/

 

The article as a whole is a bit dead but scroll to the bottom of the page and there are great visuals comparing our win streak to Arsenal's. Shows how even though we're a game behind at the moment we've already out scored and conceded less than they did. Also compares top scorers and results during that run etc. 

4 minutes ago, Chelsbear said:

Yeah I remember us getting swamped in that first half and we were lucky to get out at 1-1 at HT.

Conte is a smart manager, I think he will demand we don't start like that tonight.

 

That's more like a hope from all of us and belief by some.. For the record, we did start even worse than that against city right after that spurs game so not a given..

 

If spurs indeed going to apply their high intensity pressuring game then our priority in the 1st half should be making them chase the ball, exhausting their energy and stamina.. A smart possession gameplan is needed...

 

 

23 minutes ago, RIP Mourinho said:

Who is the ref for this game??

Artkinson

48 minutes ago, abramovich said:

Just watched again the first half from the November match and I must say, it was our worst display in a while. Pedro's wonder strike couldn't have come at a better moment and we were lucky we were only down a goal at the time.

What I noticed was how aggressively and quickly Spurs were pressing and closing us down, with 7-8 (!) players  in our own half, not allowing us to build from the back, forcing mistakes. They pass the ball fast and bypassed our midfield easily with Dembele dominating our CMs. Good thing, they only managed to score once, but that was not a pleasant sight.

I hope Conte has learned from that and has a different tactical plan in mind because we clearly don't match up well against this Spurs side in some important areas. They have very quick and athletic fullbacks and they'll be looking to explore our left side of defence, particularly Alonso. I think we'll have to look for alternative ways to organize our attack, including long balls to Costa, with Hazard and Pedro feed

ing on his knockbacks. We also have to absolutely cut down on losing the ball in our own half because of the speed of the opposition.

It's going to be a tough one.

As good as they were in the first game I don't recall them having any clear cut opportunities & once we went ahead in the 2nd half we looked more likely of adding a 3rd than them actually equalizing.

We were incredibly poor on the ball due to the high press but defensively we had a decent game and kept them at arms length after the initial setback.

51 minutes ago, abramovich said:

Just watched again the first half from the November match and I must say, it was our worst display in a while. Pedro's wonder strike couldn't have come at a better moment and we were lucky we were only down a goal at the time.

What I noticed was how aggressively and quickly Spurs were pressing and closing us down, with 7-8 (!) players  in our own half, not allowing us to build from the back, forcing mistakes. They pass the ball fast and bypassed our midfield easily with Dembele dominating our CMs. Good thing, they only managed to score once, but that was not a pleasant sight.

I hope Conte has learned from that and has a different tactical plan in mind because we clearly don't match up well against this Spurs side in some important areas. They have very quick and athletic fullbacks and they'll be looking to explore our left side of defence, particularly Alonso. I think we'll have to look for alternative ways to organize our attack, including long balls to Costa, with Hazard and Pedro feed

ing on his knockbacks. We also have to absolutely cut down on losing the ball in our own half because of the speed of the opposition.

It's going to be a tough one.

 

49 minutes ago, Chelsbear said:

Yeah I remember us getting swamped in that first half and we were lucky to get out at 1-1 at HT.

Conte is a smart manager, I think he will demand we don't start like that tonight.

Although we were awful and lucky to be level, i don't think Spurs created the chances to warrant getting further infront, apart from Kanes 25 yard effort straight at Tibo they had nothing of note. 

Nervous, 

it is a big game but we can win this. I do think Spurs will score but we have to make sure that we don't let them dictate the midfield.

2-1 to us 

If Spurs played the Taliban I'd root for the Taliban...Cmon you Blues

The last game Sky hyped as much as this, was the  bore draw between Liverpool v ManU. They wanted it so bad to be a high scoring, controversial game, with Mourhino winding up the Pool fans, and what they got was a turgid although effective lesson in how to put on a good defensive away performance by ManU. Cue lots of whining from the Scousers about bus parking etc.

I don't want to lose to Spurs, so I'd happily take a draw, they will be well up for this but with other rivals slipping up in the past few days it won't be the end of the world even if we lose, points wise.

However from a Spurs gloating point of view it will be Armageddon. I just hope they don't get away with winding up our players, nasty challenges and us ending up on the wrong end of yet another charge.

This may lead me to  break my no boozing during the week resolution. 2-0 to Spurs (my reverse psychology predictions have stood me in good stead so far this season, so I see no need to change them)

I'm afraid for Matic in this one. Kante will need him to play a big part and I still haven't been convinced he's back to pre-2015/16 levels. Wanyama is no joke

 

Can we please just bash these a$$hats into the ground and stroll 3-0 ffs

Honestly if this was a cup final, Chelsea would win this if they follow Conte's instruction. Playing at the Lane should only be a small disadvantage. 

Lets treat this as a cup final and go all out!!! Come on you blues!!!!!!

Man for man we are better in every position, its all about effort tonight

Cant see this ending without a red card. The referee has to be really strong because Tottenham are going to be right in our faces from the kickoff. Matic will really have to watch himself  i hope hazard turns walker inside out lol

 

Spuds are gonna be overpumped and over confident for this one if we can just ride the onslaught for the first 15/20 mins without conceding then we should gradually take over and show our class and hopefully come away with 3pts....unfortunatly i think twatkinson is too weak a referee for this game and end up f**king this up for us....KTBFFH!!!

2 hours ago, Chelsbear said:

Yeah I remember us getting swamped in that first half and we were lucky to get out at 1-1 at HT.

Conte is a smart manager, I think he will demand we don't start like that tonight.

To be fair I think it was the tactic to soak up pressure and hit on the break, the issue is of course you go down a goal, they may decide to ease off and let you come at them, then your gameplan is out the window, when we score first we usually win, I'd go for a quick goal come racing out the block then let them come on to us, dismantle them on the break, then again I'm not conte and don't know what he does so lets see, but for sure he will have a well thought out strategy, I may be alone here but I see conte as more of a manager to find a great system of play, rally the players, good football philosophy and consistency rather than necessarily as tactical a genius as say Mou was for individual games, Pouch will deffo have some dirty tricks for us, but 1 thing I know the boys will be up for this majorly and when we are fired up we perform, I'm expecting some beautiful interchanges from our front line. Can't wait, more excited than nervous. 

I do not think they was better then us in the first match. Their tactic was to go in the first half and take lead with 1 or 2 goals and then in the second half to try to defend their lead. They give everything in the first half and they was tired in the second.
Conte strategy was perfect and we beat them pretty handy.
And in the first match they have exactly 0 clear opportunities for goals. Their goal come from a shot that happen once in a 20-30 matches .... So they have possession, but no they wasn`t so better then us. If someone think they was so much better then us, i`m waiting for a clip with their clear chances ....

We will beat them again. Have faith in the team and in the Conte !!!

 

 

Edited January 4, 20179 yr by brakeit

On 02/01/2017 at 14:35, DonAntonio said:

Miss the days of the old 3 point lane, need to teach these boys for trying to act like men. We know their game plan there is only one way they can come at us with the high press and I'm sure conte will counteract this. We need a solution to get up the pitch quick, as long as we go in at halfback time on even terms these lot can't keep it up for the whole game we can, we get stronger, we will find a way we have for 13 games and that's no accident 

I like your style DonA, optimistic, factual and no foul mouthed ramblings, well done Sir. Now let's go and teach these upstarts a footballing lesson.

2 hours ago, dhidza said:

Artkinson

Oh NO, Here We Go. Atkinson? JESUS !!!