Tottenham Hotspur went into today’s home match against Chelsea having won just once against the Blues in their last 17 matches.
Make it once in 18. A quick-fire series of defensive lapses in one sequence
in the first half led to a tap in goal for Joao Pedro, Tottenham only mustered two shots with neither of them on target, and Spurs limped to a wet squib of a 1-0 loss to their London rivals.
This was honestly some of the worst football I’ve seen from a Spurs team under Thomas Frank, and I have seen a LOT of bad football so far. Especially when this felt like a winnable match against a beatable Chelsea team. Alas.
Here are my match reactions for a game that you cannot pay me enough money to watch again.
Match reactions
- Is this bad?
- I swear something stupid happens every single time we play Chelsea. This time, Lucas Bergvall got thwacked in the head by a ball inside two minutes and had to be subbed off under concussion protocol. It’s the right decision, 100%. No question, player safety comes first. But man. Man! Why!
- And then Spurs had Vicario seen to by the match officials for some sort of ankle issue inside a half hour. I swear to God.
- Despite all that, the first half was mostly boring. No real chances, nothing exciting happening either direction. I could’ve taken a nap, guys!
- Chelsea’s opener should’ve been accompanied by the theme from Benny Hill. Djed Spence gives the ball away cheaply, Micky got dispossessed by Caicedo after being put under pressure from a terrible back pass from Xavi, and Joao Pedro had the easiest of finishes. Awful, awful football. Why do I like this sport?
- Rodrigo Bentancur is very very very very VERY lucky not to be sent off for what was an awful tackle on Reese James. Honestly, VAR very well could’ve upgraded that yellow to a red and I would not have complained.
- Not sure if Jarrod Gillet has ever officiated a Tottenham-Chelsea match before, but he let it get out of control early on and never really regained a handle on the match. Two potentially red card-worthy challenges, numerous yellow cards, two different intra-squad scuffles, and some baffling errors. He’s not the reason why Spurs lost, but come on, at least Google “Battle of the Bridge” before kick-off.
- I don’t really know if I have a whole lot to say about the second half. Both teams kicked the ball around a lot. Chelsea had more of the ball and many more opportunities to score goals than Spurs did. Enzo probably should’ve seen red for putting his studs into Palhinha’s knee. It was boring, and awful. Let us never speak of it again.
