If we look at the City team which Spurs beat I would say KDB, Walker and maybe Laporte are the only 3 I would say may have a shout to get into our team, in all other positions we have superior players. Obviously this does not mean we are better than City as they did not have Sterling, Aguero, Fernandinho starting and you certainly cannot discount the impact of an experienced Manager but at this moment in time we are a much tougher test for Spurs than City.

If they sit back like they did against City against us especially without Toby Alderweireld I can see us overwhelming them, personally I think they sat far too deep against City and due to City's incompetence at the back were able to get 2 goals from maybe 3 attacks in the whole game.

 

11 hours ago, mojo said:

Referee: Paul Tierney. Assistants: Lee Betts, Ian Hussin. Fourth official: Mike Dean. VAR: Craig Pawson. Assistant VAR: Stephen Child.

Craig Pawson isn’t much of an upgrade on VAR to be honest, he’s a big advocate of the Harry Kane Diving Show.  

5 hours ago, coco said:

This would be my team at KO.

                 Supermend

James      Silva     Zouma     Chilwell

               Kovacic    Kante

                       Mount

Ziyech           Abraham          Werner

 

If we need to chase goals later on......

                 Supermend

James      Silva     Zouma     Chilwell

                     Kante

            Havertz      Mount

CHO           Abraham           Pulisic

Why did you remove Ziyech when we need to chase goals?  

Time for Giroud to stake his claim. He scored a good goal at Newcastle but overall I feel Tammy was poor the last two games.

2 hours ago, Deino said:

Why did you remove Ziyech when we need to chase goals?  

Both are good players so it doesn't matter who starts, as long as we have some fresh legs in the attack on the hour mark.

Should be an interesting game. I think it will tell us a lot about where we are as a team. While our recent form has been fantastic, we haven't really faced many top teams (and before people go off on me, I'm not saying beating "small" teams is a bad thing). Spurs look nothing special to me, but they seem to be very clinical, so we need to take our chances when they come our way.  If we're not too naive to let them hit us on the counter, we should be able to beat them. Can't wait!

It is pretty obvious that Chilwell and Werner are knackered after their performance against Rennes. I thought Lamps would have rested them both but he rested Ziyech and james which tells me we will build most of our attacks from the right side since James and Ziyech will be fresh. Thankfully Pulisic is back and i am sure he will come on for Werner in the second half regardless of the score.

                         Kepa

James       Zouma       Silva        Chilwell

                         Kante

           Kovacic         Mount

Ziyech         Abraham           Werner

 

 

------------------Mendy---------------------

James------Silva---------Zouma-----Chilwell

-------Kovacic----Kante-----Mount----------

Ziyech------------Giroud-------------Werner

 

 

Let Giroud build on his momentum and remind spurs what a monster of a striker he is.

5 hours ago, Luiz4Chelsea said:

------------------Mendy---------------------

James------Silva---------Zouma-----Chilwell

-------Kovacic----Kante-----Mount----------

Ziyech------------Giroud-------------Werner

 

 

Let Giroud build on his momentum and remind spurs what a monster of a striker he is.

Yeah, I agree, as per The Don, it’s the side most of us would pick, give or take TA for OG - no element of surprise for Mourinho either, which is a bit of a shame in respect of allowing them c**ts to be fairly certain on how we will be set up and plan accordingly? 

However, there is always the possibility that FL plays a different set up - Pretty unlikely though isn’t it ????

* I mean as a side that he thinks is capable of winning but to undermine Mourinho’s selection 

Edited November 26, 20205 yr by Paddy

On 25/11/2020 at 16:07, coco said:

This would be my team at KO.

                 Supermend

James      Silva     Zouma     Chilwell

               Kovacic    Kante

                       Mount

Ziyech           Abraham          Werner

 

If we need to chase goals later on......

                 Supermend

James      Silva     Zouma     Chilwell

                     Kante

            Havertz      Mount

CHO           Abraham           Pulisic

Agree, except my front 3 if we need to chase goals will be Ziyech Giroud Pulisic.

Has this been posted yet? Some great memories:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/av/football/55080516

When you see Spurs put a B team out tonight they really did not need to make this a sunday match.

Romans 1000th match as owner

Spuds B team just completed a training game with a comfortable 4-0 performance 

monkey face got more minutes none of their regulars featured so the rest is irrelevant 

my team would be 4 3 3

Mendy

james Silva Zouma chilly

kova Kante Mount 

zyech Tammy Werner 

Bricking it for this one, might have to book Monday off work so I can get appropriately drunk.

On 25/11/2020 at 11:56, Munkworth said:

Craig Pawson isn’t much of an upgrade on VAR to be honest, he’s a big advocate of the Harry Kane Diving Show.  

Agreed.

11 hours ago, axman2526 said:

When you see Spurs put a B team out tonight they really did not need to make this a sunday match.

Yeah and they’ll still moan about us having more time to recover/prepare for the match.

21 hours ago, The Don Antonio said:

It is pretty obvious that Chilwell and Werner are knackered after their performance against Rennes. I thought Lamps would have rested them both but he rested Ziyech and james which tells me we will build most of our attacks from the right side since James and Ziyech will be fresh. Thankfully Pulisic is back and i am sure he will come on for Werner in the second half regardless of the score.

                         Kepa

James       Zouma       Silva        Chilwell

                         Kante

           Kovacic         Mount

Ziyech         Abraham           Werner

 

 

I would agree. I’d be tempted with Giroud but it will be difficult to gauge how Spurs will line up. They have been pressing high more under Mourinho than expected and Tammy is more paced than Giroud. 
 

If Spurs play a low block then Giroud is a far better option. I’d start Tammy though as his form deserves another start. If he’s poor again though it’s subbed at half time. We need a good start in a game like this. 
 

Defensively, I would be really worried if we didn’t have Thiago Silva. This approach where Kane drops deeper and a cb stupidly follows him, then Son and Lucas (or Other) come inside and almost play as a wide forward, has been causing havoc. Thiago won’t fall into the trap though and he will organise the defence to keep shape. I’m confident in this game of keeping Spurs front 3 quiet. 

I would also be tempted to play CHO, Werner, Ziyech. 
 

I’d also be instructing whoever plays on the left to run and run at Aurier. He is an absolute bombscare and could make 8 successful tackles in a row before giving away two penalties for being a clown. He is genuinely brutal and we should attack his side on repeat. 

Question is does FL play Havertz and Pulisic from the start? Both likely to start in the bench...James Ziyech combo will be key for this match...

The interesting thing for me in this game is whether Lampard continues with our tried and tested formation of 4-3-3 or look to switch to a 3-4-3 which is the formation we played in both games against Spurs and not to forget we did the double over them. The games finished 2-0 and 2-1 but we battered them in both games and sadly the scoreline didnt really reflect that dominance. The benefit of playing 3 at the back is that we blunt the main weapon Spurs have in creating goals and that is Kane coming deep to create holes which Son & co exploit.

Kane dropping deep can result in 2 things happening, either a CB comes deep leaving space behind or the CB will stay in place and hope the holding midfielder is in place to press Kane, if not it gives Kane the time to turn and get his head up. Playing 3 at the back allows the Centrally placed CB to track Kane deep allowing the other 2 CB's to cover the space in behind. I think playing 3 at the back will definitely shore up some issues in relation to Spurs threat on the break however we do lose something from the midfield, I think Kova would have to be sacrificed for Rudiger.

                  Mendy

      Zouma - Silva - Rudi

James - Kante - Mount - Chilwell 

     Ziyech - Tammy - Werner

Having said that I think as we are playing home I would prefer Lampard to go with a 4-3-3 and look to control the midfield and trust Silva and Kante to manage the Kane threat, if we struggle to cope then maybe look to change.

1 hour ago, Imran_CFC said:

The interesting thing for me in this game is whether Lampard continues with our tried and tested formation of 4-3-3 or look to switch to a 3-4-3 which is the formation we played in both games against Spurs and not to forget we did the double over them. The games finished 2-0 and 2-1 but we battered them in both games and sadly the scoreline didnt really reflect that dominance. The benefit of playing 3 at the back is that we blunt the main weapon Spurs have in creating goals and that is Kane coming deep to create holes which Son & co exploit.

Kane dropping deep can result in 2 things happening, either a CB comes deep leaving space behind or the CB will stay in place and hope the holding midfielder is in place to press Kane, if not it gives Kane the time to turn and get his head up. Playing 3 at the back allows the Centrally placed CB to track Kane deep allowing the other 2 CB's to cover the space in behind. I think playing 3 at the back will definitely shore up some issues in relation to Spurs threat on the break however we do lose something from the midfield, I think Kova would have to be sacrificed for Rudiger.

                  Mendy

      Zouma - Silva - Rudi

James - Kante - Mount - Chilwell 

     Ziyech - Tammy - Werner

Having said that I think as we are playing home I would prefer Lampard to go with a 4-3-3 and look to control the midfield and trust Silva and Kante to manage the Kane threat, if we struggle to cope then maybe look to change.

I would favour your 3 at the back approach away...for this game I feel we should be attacking and dominant...love to see Pulisic or Ziyech against Aurier...

Expect to see a Jose masterclass - stifle the game by smothering the midfield, sit deep and hit on the counter attack.  But like he once said in an interview with Richard Keyes and I think still true today..'when you have the ball you can control the game ,Chelsea like to have possession of the ball, but they move the ball slowly, so without the ball the opponent controls the game'.    We do play slowly out of the back, sideways and back passes just for the sake of possession hopefully we can change that.

Score early, or at least score the first goal to get them to change their game plan....other than that it will be a point each I think.

 

5 hours ago, MayosNoun! said:

I would agree. I’d be tempted with Giroud but it will be difficult to gauge how Spurs will line up. They have been pressing high more under Mourinho than expected and Tammy is more paced than Giroud. 
 

If Spurs play a low block then Giroud is a far better option. I’d start Tammy though as his form deserves another start. If he’s poor again though it’s subbed at half time. We need a good start in a game like this. 
 

Defensively, I would be really worried if we didn’t have Thiago Silva. This approach where Kane drops deeper and a cb stupidly follows him, then Son and Lucas (or Other) come inside and almost play as a wide forward, has been causing havoc. Thiago won’t fall into the trap though and he will organise the defence to keep shape. I’m confident in this game of keeping Spurs front 3 quiet. 

     I would have been worried about Kane if we played Jorginho in the defensive midfield position but with Kante back there i expect him to be frustrated when he drops deep. 

I am also not worried about their low block. It worked against city because City try to force the ball down the middle since they dont have a dominant striker that can attack crosses. We on the other hand have Ziyech,James and Chilwell who can whip in a cross to a dominant Abraham or Giroud, besides we arent too shaby at set pieces. I expect it to be a close game but we should nick it by the odd goal.

 

Sundays game against Spurs will be our 1000th game with Roman at the helm. I really hope we stick it to the spuds and Mourinho