They say all good things come to an end. That became true for Chelsea’s case on Wednesday night as the Blues’ 13-game league winning streak was snapped in a 2-0 loss at White Hart Lane against Tottenham.
It was a rather uninspiring match from Antonio Conte’s Blues, whose two changes from the Stoke City match were Nemanja Matic on for Cesc Fabregas and Pedro on for Willian.
Spurs came out gunning from the get-go, and were rewarded for their efforts in first minute of stoppage time in the first half when Christian Eriksen found Dele Alli all alone inside the box for a free header.
Chelsea came out looking like a much different team to start the second half, but missed opportunities came back to haunt them.
Tottenham went 2-0 up nine minutes into the second half on a goal eerily identical to the first, with Eriksen connecting with Alli.
Coming into the match, much was spoken about Chelsea’s larger amount of rest and smaller amount of travel over the holiday period.
After the result, maybe managers like Arsene Wenger and Jose Mourinho will be happy now. It would’ve all been a moot point had Chelsea not been top of the table at New Year’s. But I digress.
Here’s what we learnt from Wednesday’s defeat.
We need to stop overreacting
Seriously, it’s getting old and it’s only been a day.
The number of people writing off Marcos Alonso after one bad game is honestly embarrassing. Do you remember last year? Or did you just stop following when we got torched by Manchester City in the 2015-16 season?
Still plenty of positives
Sure, beating Arsenal’s record 14 straight league wins would’ve been nice. But now the pressure is off to keep the streak alive.
The Blues are still top of the table and hold a five-point lead over Liverpool.
Winning 13 matches in a row, which included games against the defending league champions and Manchester United back-to-back, then beating Spurs and Manchester City back-to-back a few weeks later is nothing short of incredible.
Perhaps the biggest silver lining of it all? We don’t have to listen to analysts talk about Chelsea’s “unfair advantage” helping them over the holiday period anymore. At least hopefully not.
Defence must be better
Right, let’s get back to business. If you read my ‘What we learned‘ from the Stoke City game, you’ll know that this is our second game in a row where our defence let us down.
Both goals by Alli were pretty much identical: no one out to mark Eriksen outside of the box before he lofts a ball into the box, finding a completely unmarked Alli in the box for a free header.
Azpilicueta, who had a fantastic game against Stoke, had the completely opposite kind of performance against Tottenham.
David Luiz and Gary Cahill were just kind of out there. Victor Moses and Alonso were abysmal.
Minor tidbits
This needs to be said: Mauricio Pochettino put on a tactical clinic on Wednesday evening.
Beating this 3-4-3 isn’t easy, as Chelsea have proven over the 13 matches prior to Wednesday, but if an opposing team has good fullbacks, they can wreak havoc on the current Chelsea defence.
Kyle Walker occasionally got Alonso on counter-attacks, forcing Cahill to come out wide and defend.
Once Chelsea are at that point, it’s lights out. Same thing applies to the other side, except not quite to the same extent as the left side, considering Azpilicueta’s experience at fullback.
Let’s also not forget the fact that Spurs pressed brilliantly. That cannot be stated enough. When Walker and Danny Rose weren’t in behind Alonso and Moses, they were pinning them in Chelsea’s defensive third and not allowing them out.
Fabregas was needed in this game much earlier than the 79th minute.
Getting some depth at wingback is the priority in my eyes. But getting another right forward is a close second. Pedro was useless out there on Wednesday evening. Willian came on late in the match, and I’m not exactly sure what he was told to do. Are Pedro and Willian good enough options for the rest of the season? Yeah, most likely. But with Champions League football potentially thrown into the mix next season, we’re going need more from that position.
This loss can’t be pinned on one player. If you want to blame Alonso, then why doesn’t Moses get any blame? This game was lost because we were outclassed tactically and our star players just didn’t show up.
Work to be done
Just like the first half of Premier League fixtures, we play Arsenal and Liverpool in a short time span.
The Blues travel to Anfield on the final day of January before hosting Arsenal four days later. Before Liverpool? Peterborough at the Bridge on 8th January, at Leicester six days later and vs. Hull City on the 22nd.
Definitely some manageable fixtures, but results are going to be needed between now and Liverpool.