Chelsea (Sydney) 01.08.2026

Roberto De Zerbi fielded a stronger side for this final match of Tottenham’s tour of New Zealand and Australia after two games against local teams, with Sandro Tonali and Andy Robertson in the line-up alongside Jan Paul van Hecke making his first appearance for the club.  There was a slight breeze and a chill as the teams came out to their respective themes and Tottenham’s captain was once again Archie Gray, although he forgot his duty to take a mascot out with him !

When the match kicked off, there was a lot of pressing by both sides, but Tottenham looked fairly comfortable on the ball, while not really making any inroads into the Chelsea half.  After seven minutes, Chelsea got a free-kick on their left wing, but when it was played in, the header on the end of it was glanced wide.  A couple of minutes later and it all nearly kicked off.  Conor Gallagher was a bit late on Essugo and straight away the Chelsea players in his face so the ref pulled out a yellow card in response to their reaction.  Spurs were getting physical with the Chelsea players and PJ van Hecke was enjoying knocking over his former Brighton team-mate Joao Pedro.

In the 17th minute of the match, Sandro Tonali picked out a first-time ball to Manor Solomon on the left.  He moved forward, stood up the player tracking him and laid it back to Tonali, whose shot took a big deflection off Colwill to send the ball past Sharman-Lowe, who went the other way.  It was a goal that had a bit of good fortune about it, but Tonali had picked up a pocket of space just outside the box to receive the pass and that gave him time to strike it first time.

The lead only lasted four minutes.  Despite heavy pressing from Bergvall and Gallagher, Lavia broke free and started a move up the left with Gittens putting a cross to the far post.  A deflection off Ben Davies’ head and Andy Robertson losing track of Estavao coming in behind him resulted in the Brazilian’s header going in across the goal to level it up.  

Solomon was dispossessed on the half hour out on the Spurs right and the Chelsea defender played a pass behind Fofana in the middle, just outside the area, allowing Mathys Tel to shoot first time, but he got under the ball and sent it way off target when he had been presented with a shot that he should have at least got on target.  The Frenchman was having a good game, being willing to run at Palestra and the partnership with Robertson looked to be developing well.  The energetic press that De Zerbi seems to be imposing paid off again soon after, when we won the ball on the edge of the box and Tel took on two defenders, but fell wehn he was off balance before he could ger the ball across.

A loose pass by Davies 25 yards out was touched forward for Pedro, but, as he was about to shoot, the presence of Davies caused him to skew his shot well wide of the goal.   When Ben brought the ball out and fed Tel on the left, the winger ran through three defenders, then chopped the ball back away from another to shoot, but the keeper blocked it at close range in the six yard box.  Mathys showed good footwork and confidence to take the defenders on.

After a spell of possession around the Chelsea 18 yard line, Tel slipped a pass through inside the box to Davies who put a fast ball across the face of the goal but Solanke was eased off getting on the end of it.  In the next phase of play a forward pass towards the box for Dom brought the Chelsea keeper off his line to make a flying punch to get the ball away from the Tottenham striker.  It was an unusual move in the context of the game, as, when Spurs attacked, Chelsea were very quick to get all 10 outfield players behind the ball.

Just before half-time, Robertson played a ball in to Conor inside the box and it looked as though Fofana kicked right through him to bring him down, but the referee, who had been giving most physical contacts in the match, over-looked this one.  When the half-time whistle came, it ended a half in which Tottenham had enjoyed a lot of possession with a few chances created, while Chelsea were content to sit deep and rely on the breakaway.

Spurs brought on Kevin Danso for JP and Richarlison for Solanke at half-time subs, but that back-fired very quickly.  Danso mis-controlled a pass from Gray and as it went behind him, he took out Pedro by falling into him and the ref pulled out a red card as he deemed there was no covering defender behind the Austrian.  Palmer put the free-kick a yard wide of Kinsky’s left hand post.  The dismissal caused a re-shuffle in the Tottenham team, with Gray moving inside to partner Davies while Solomon dropped back to right back. and on the bench, the Spurs Head Coach did not look happy.

With the extra man, Chelsea suddenly look more attacking and when Pedro got away on the Chelsea right a couple of minutes after the sending off, he pulled it back to Estavao in space 12 yards out.  The shot from the striker took a deflection off Robertson, but Toni Kinsky produced a superb save, getting a hand on the ball taking it onto the bar, with the rebound shot over the top.  It was an amazing reflex save that he should have had no chance with really.  

Roberto made a defensive change to shore up our defence with Malachi Hardy replacing Conor Gallagher, with boos around the ground for the former Chelsea man from the Blues fans in the crowd.  In the 56th minute, Tonali was surrounded by three Chelsea players just outside the Tottenham area and was possibly bundled over (as Danso had done just before) but play was allowed to continue.  Estavao was found in the box with only Kinsky to beat, but closing the striker down and with an out-stretched leg, he kept out the resulting shot. 

It was backs to the wall stuff, as Davies blocked shot from Palmer inside the area and on the hour, Gittens took on Gray by the dead-ball line, then came inside and shot with Hardy bravely getting his head on it to take it out for a corner.  Spurs did briefly manage to get forward as play restarted, which had been hard as there was only Richi up front with little support.  Davies played the ball out, Tel got up left wing and laid the ball inside for Richi, who set it up for Tonali, but his side-foot at goal lacked enough power on it to beat Sharman-Lowe to the keeper’s left.

With twenty minutes of the second half gone, Robertson lost his bearings with an intended chest back to Kinsky putting it to Pedro a few yards out.  He had got in between them and Toni had to again be alert to block the shot as the ball came off his thigh and flipped up in the air, with Archie Gray in the right place in front of the goal to clear the danger.  Ten minutes later, a long Chelsea free-kick from left was aimed at the far post, where Tye Hall did enough to put Essugo off and the Pensioners’ defender headed it down but it was too far down as it bounced up over the bar.

Despite Tottenham only having ten men, the changes disrupted Chelsea more than us and there were large pockets of space.  Taking Archie’s pass and with a brilliant turn away from a Chelsea player close to the side-line, Rio Kyerematen brought the ball forward from 20 yards inside his own half.  With a lot of green grass ahead of him, he kept going and ran 50 yards before letting go a shot as the defence backed off.  The goalkeeper had left a lot of space to his left and it was that part of the goal that Rio was aiming for until the ball bobbled just as he was about to shoot and his shot grazed the top of the bar. 

Chelsea tried to hit back and make use of the extra man, with Sarr having an effort from outside the box that shot hit Gray and the ball pin-balled about inside the area until Kyerematen cleared.  It looked like Spurs would hold on for penalties, but just as the game entered the one minute of added time at the end, Archie won a physical header 25 yards from the Chelsea goal, the ball was played forward to Mikey Moore and the ball was rolled on to Jamie Donley.  Steadying himself, he placed a deliberate right foot effort to the keeper’s left and it was out of his reach, but came off the foot of the post.  The bounce took it across goal, leaving Richarlison the simple task of side-footing the ball into an empty net with his left foot.  The whole move wasn’t easy, with the ball bobbling all over the place, but Richi followed in better than the Chelsea defenders, who were inactive, allowing him all the time in the world to knock the ball home from inside the six-yard box.

OK.  It’s a nothing game in pre-season, but all the Chelsea talk before the game was that there is no such thing as a friendly against Spurs, so the win with almost the last kick of the ball against 11 players was sweet.  It shut up all the Chelsea fans in the stadium, which held a good crowd of more than 80,000 for a ‘friendly’. 

Given the circumstances, there was only Kevin who didn’t a) get a run out and b) didn’t shine.  Everyone who played did well (apart from the very late subs, who didn’t have much chance to get involved) and none more so than Toni Kinsky who made a string of second half saves that kept Tottenham in the game and one – the deflection he managed to push up onto the bar – was outstanding.  The sending off disrupted De Zerbi’s plans for the match, requiring changes earlier than thought and with Tottenham’s dominance of possession in the first half turning into a defensive exercise for the final 40 minutes.  Whether the pitch played a part in Danso’s dismissal, with it being bumpy and still bearing the marks from a match of a different sport or whether he wasn’t switched on after coming on just four minutes earlier.  This made it a practice run for any matches where we are reduced in numbers later in the season, which produced a decent effort against a full Chelsea side.  They did create chances, but our back line and midfielders dug in to keep them out.

It meant three games played Down Under with two wins and one draw (won on penalties) and a long journey home.  There is a bit of a style coming together, with some of the players sounding like they are buying into the system and few dissenting noises coming out of the camp.  There are still players to join up with the squad and some who will leave (permanently or on loan), as well as some coming in, so changes will happen before the opening match in three weeks at Brentford. 

Interesting times lay ahead.

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