Chelsea (Away) 24.10.2026

Travelling with little hope more than expectation, the West London venue was an even more problematic destination with transport difficulties and coming in the middle of Storm Boelo that was sweeping across England.  The only storm that occurred on the pitch came from Chelsea’s player inability to cope with Tottenham’s play and to control their own emotions, because being outplayed they took to kicking Spurs players and were made to pay for it.  It was hardly ‘The Battle of the Bridge’ as their was little fight from the Pensioners apart from that which didn’t involve the ball.

Injuries again denied Tottenham of the services of Lucas Bergvall, Destiny Udogie, Wilson Odobert, Xavi Simons and Savio, while Rodrigo Bentancur was serving out his suspension, so Mateus Fernandes started alongside Sandro Tonali with Omar Marmoush as a lone striker with Maddison and Kudus behind him.  Andy Robertson filled in at left back, with Archie Gray on the right side of a back four, with the two Dutch centre-halves between them. 

Chelsea kicked off and had to face an early free-kick from Spurs that Penders came to punch and got it outside the box.  When Spurs won a corner, Chelsea broke away and flashed a cross long the six yard line, but there was no blue shirt reading it and it went away to the far side.  When Spurs tried to play out from the back, they lost possession and conceded a free-kick 30 yards out.  The home side shaped to have a shot but Palmer lifted the ball over the wall into the penalty area for Neto, but the ball ran through to Kinsky and there was another opportunity when Neto pushed Fernandes over in the corner at the Tottenham end, passed to Palmer and he tried to curl the ball into the far top corner from the right, bringing a flying save from Toni, wo palmed it wide.

Spurs were getting into the match and a ball spread wide to Mathys Tel was played into James Maddison, who cut back but got crowded out in the box.  Shortly after a short corner routine produced a cross by Tel to the far post, where Mo Kudus brought the ball down and tried to find the side of the goal where the ball had just come from, but put it wide.  With 25 minutes gone, Spurs worked Tel into the box, but Neto nicked the ball off him and four minutes later, after Robertson and Tel had combined on the left, a low ball into Omar Marmoush in the middle of the area, the striker’s shot was saved by the keeper at close range.  Marmoush hit the ball low and perhaps a shot higher into the goal would have beaten Penders.

Ten minutes before half-time, Chelsea worked the ball to Henderson in the area near the penalty spot and his shot made Kinsky dive left to push the ball wide and while Neto followed up to force Toni to save with his foot, he had been offside anyway.  Marmoush had another chance late in the half which was blocked and the ball dropped invitingly for Tonali, but his shot was wild and well over the bar.

Straight after the break, Palmer went down on the right hand edge of the Spurs box but the ref gave nothing and VAR agreed, because he wasn’t touched.  Spurs were forced into a change on 51 minutes when James Maddison went down, sitting on the turf, looking crestfallen.  After having an impact on Monday and in this match, it was shame that he has suffered another injury.

Referees have a lot to watch but when Acheampong made the foulest of throws, none of the officials seemed to notice.  After Spurs lost the ball in midfield, Chelsea tried to release Neto, but he failed to control the ball and Kinsky Spurs cleared it.  When Tel won a corner, Micky van de Ven was thrown to the floor, but nothing was given.  There was a number of incidences where Chelsea players pushed Spurs players over with no decision from the ref, but when the same thing happened the other way, it resulted in a free-kick to the home team.  

Just after the hour, Fernandes’ loose pass went to a blue shirt and Neto hit a shot that Kinsky had to save just before Pedro Porro made his return from injury as a sub, coming on with Dominic Solanke for Marmoush and Robertson.  Having come on for Maddison, Gallagher was constantly booed by the home crowd and he picked up a booking for pulling back Rogers and five minutes later it started to kick off.  Micky flew into a tackle on Caicedo after he played the ball forward to Palmer, who was half-tackled by Fernandes who then knocked the ball away with his arm.  Palmer reacted by running at Fernandes and throwing his thigh/hip into his head and knocking him over.  For the second away match in succession, a player running aggressively towards one of ours and knocking them over gets a yellow card for violent conduct.  Fernandes and van de Ven rightly picked up bookings, but it was an escape for Palmer, who was exhibiting the arrogant attitude that seems to be blighting his international career.

Fernandes lost possession again, resulting in Estavao going for goal from a tight angle, but only finding the side-netting.  Colwill went through Solanke from behind, but nothing was given, so Spurs took it on to themselves to put their domination to good use.  Winning a corner on our left wing, Fernandes took it and put it into the six yard box.  Chelsea’s tactic of leaving four men up-field to stop their goalkeeper getting crowded out seemed to work, as only two Spurs players were in the goalmouth, with Micky running across the keeper’s eye-line and Jan Paul van Hecke came into challenge as the ball came across, but Penders got there first.  However, he was in the wrong position to try and punch this time and the ball skidded off his knuckles and towards his own goal.  Lacroix tried to clear it but the referee’s watch flashed and the goal was given.  77 minutes had gone and the goal was the reward for Tottenham restricting Chelsea to few chances and winning the midfield battle.

Neto picked up a booking for pulling back Porro who raced away from him and when the free-kick was taken, it was played at Conor Gallagher, ten yards away, at pace.  He tried to control it and the ball got away from him, although he managed to toe the ball to a Spurs player.  The snide, brainless Chelsea midfielder who is Cole Palmer stamped down on Gallagher’s ankle just nine minutes after being lucky not to be sent off to make another potential red card challenge but the ref only saw this as a yellow card and added to his previous caution he had to go.  Despite the red card being shown, he failed to leave the pitch, pulled the referee by the shoulder and stood there complaining “What?” when, had the foul been made on him, he would have been rolling over and over to make the most of it.  Losing your head and then making two aggressive actions so close together cost Chelsea.

An 85th minute corner for Spurs dropped at Kudus’ feet at the far post, but couldn’t make a decent contact under pressure from a defender.  Colwill’s short pass to Acheampong was won by Mathys Tel ten yards inside his own half and set off on a run that took him away from Acheampong’s recovery run, then cut inside Lacroix, whose flailing arm across the Spurs man’s chest that attempted to knock him off balance before striking a low shot from 20 yards past the keeper’s dive to his right and inside the post to score a tremendous goal to make it 2-0.  However lucky people will say the first goal was, this wone was class and showed exactly what Mathys can do when there is space in front of him to attack defenders who are backing off.  It proved to be the last kick for Tel, who was replaced by Ben Davies and Dejan Kulusevski continued his rehabilitation by replacing Mo Kudus, who had a good game on and off the ball.

As Tottenham were keeping the ball with ease, Rogers took a swipe at Gallagher from behind which earned a red card for Ralls when we faced Cardiff City at Wembley, but now is apparently only a yellow.  It wasn’t only the home players who were losing their heads, but the fans were too.  The “Is there a fire drill?” chants were coming from the Spurs fans and one glory hunting Chelsea ‘supporter’ who was heading out of the stand, turned around to remonstrate in a pointless and hilarious fashion.

While Chelsea missed Joao Pedro, the plan that they had to play without him failed to pay off.  I think a lot of Chelsea players assumed the three points would be theirs anyway, so didn’t have to work too hard, with others seemingly happy trying to injure Tottenham players with crude challenges, which, even if borne out of frustration, were vicious and wat beyond anything that has happened in recent matches between the two sides.  Caicedo went around trying to act like an enforcer, but when Spurs played around him, he looked ordinary and was left to misplace passes off the pitch.  For all the skill that Rogers and Palmer show on occasion, it was absent today, as they struggled to find their role in the re-arranged line-up.

While the history of Tottenham at Chelsea is well documented, this second deserved win in a week marks a coming together of the squad following the week away in Spain.  While it is no means the point where our season turns, only time will tell if that is the case, the confident approach against a side almost everyone said would take the points, was impressive and the pairing of Fernandes and Tonali showed promise of developing an understanding that could provide a route through the midfield.

As players return from injury, others get injured, so the squad members have to be ready to step up and Archie Gray played well at right back after performing in midfield for most of the Coventry game.  Robertson came in for Udogie, Tel for Solanke.  It has taken some time for the team to adopt De Zerbi’s tactics, but it is starting to bear fruit.  We’re only eight games in, but, again, the signs of something together gives hope.  

• Mathys Tel plays his 50th match in the Premier League for Tottenham.
• Andy Robertson makes his 300th career Premier League start.
• James Maddison played his 400th career club appearance.
• The players took the knee before kick off.