Show only key events Please enable JavaScript to use this feature 14 mins But his performance is poor, and there’s an offside in between. 13 mins It’s Chelsea on the rise now, dominating the area without doing much else. Cucurella clears the cross, then Sessegnon shins the leg of Loftus-Cheek and James is out for the foul. 11 mins Better than Chelsea, Jorginho spreads the play properly but James’ cross is poor and Spurs clear the ball. 9mins Cucurella is closed in on the sliding Romero, goes inside him and nails him with a reasonable doubt knee. 8 mins Kante takes a poor pass from Hojbjerg but the ball out is on the wrong side of Havertz. Chelsea, however, continue, putting her in the box as Cucurella follows up… lashing a shot into the nearest body. 7 min Spurs are looking really confident. sorry spurs fans! Chelsea, meanwhile, look more like they’re making it up as they go along. 6 mins Spurs started the better, quicker to second balls and more coherent forward movement. 4 mins again, Spurs pick it up in midfield and Kane finds Sean but his shot is blocked. His team. Keep the pressure on though, Kane works a decent pass over the top for Royal but on the straight his cross is easily collected by Mendy. 4 minutes…but Sean curls it back up. 2 min Spurs steal the ball in midfield but Son can’t find a decent passing lane when fed by Kulusevski. No matter, Kane wins a free-kick on the right, and this is a decent chance to put the ball into the box… 1 minute Hmmm, looks like Chelsea are playing with four fours, but let’s see. What’s certainly happening is that Kai Havertz has been given a serious haircut and Ruben Loftus-Cheek is on the right side of midfield. So if it’s a back three, James will be in it not Cucurella. 1 minute and off we go! “I imagine Cucurella will be at your back with Koulibaly and Silva,” says Tim Baker. “James and RLC fullbacks. The big-haired Spaniard often filled that role with distinction for Brighton. If Tuchel gives him the freedom that Potter gave him, expect him to continue to progress when possible.” Yes, I would agree with that. The teams are coming! Oh, he’s wearing a black t-shirt underneath. For solace, check out these lads. Arthur Jorge (L) sits next to his substitute Denis Troch during a match between Lyon and Paris Saint-Germain in 1998. Photo: Philippe Desmazes/AFP/Getty Images Todd Boehly wears a blue shirt. In these temperatures, that’s a bold call. Photo: Pornchai Kittiwongsakul/EPA “I love football and I really like statistics,” he emails Richard Hirst, “but the two don’t mix well. I’ve never tried to figure out the expected goals, but with all due respect to Keshava Guha, how can you get 0.6 out of an expected goal? It has to be when the whole ball doesn’t cross the line!’ I don’t know, I’m not a huge stats guy, but I enjoy different ways of understanding the game, and since the pros want to do it, I wouldn’t be doing my job if I did it like it’s not a thing. xG isn’t infallible, nor particularly useful at telling you about individual games, especially if you’ve watched them, but it’s not terrible at summarizing a series of actions you haven’t seen. “Re Højbjerg v Bissouma,” tweets @andersvb as if discussing case law. “By all accounts, Højbjerg has proven himself to be a leader in the dressing room and on the pitch. Perhaps Conte is wary of upsetting that balance?’ Sure, I can see that – although he has signed Bissuma, probably to tax the position of Hojbjerg. Maybe he wants to take things gradually, but Conte doesn’t seem like a gradual kind of cat. Tuchel tells Sky he is playing three at the back. Loftus-Cheek will be a full-back because he thinks you need five to defend Spurs’ attacking full-backs – well, I don’t quite get it – but we don’t know which side, so I don’t know which. of James and Koukourela will be in the midfield. “I agree with your assessment that Raheem Sterling is more effective away from home,” says Keshava Guha, “but I’m not sure his finishing is the reason. He’s more someone with a few memorable bad misses than a consistently inadequate finisher. In his last five seasons at City, he scored 75 goals without penalties, against an expected total of 69.6 (stats via FBRef). So, if anything, it’s finished slightly *above average.” Hey, I see what you’re saying, but I’d need to know how the data was compiled before committing to it. Let’s say Sterling scores some really tough ones, could they raise xG’s stay if he’s missing others he should be scoring? I also wonder if it makes a difference that, playing for City, he had a lot of chances, giving him room to score a lot, thus improving his numbers, whereas if he is fed scraps, he might miss more. I don’t know, I’m probably just talking. I tried to rationalize it earlier, but I’m still surprised that Conte prefers Hoibierg over Bissuma. I can’t see a single aspect of the former’s gameplay that is superior to the latter, and I also don’t understand why you wouldn’t want to install the new a-sap players. “This game.” begins Matt Donny. “He was often (and deservedly) disliked, but this game should ALWAYS be refereed by Mark Clattenburg. His finest hour.” Love Clattz. The referee we all know we would be. It’s a funny thing about Chelsea, really. Thomas Tuchel did brilliantly to beat Gazprom, having come on midway through the season, but there weren’t many obvious improvements on last season. With the players they have, it’s hard to see them getting anywhere near the top two, and given what they’re spending, they’ll want to. Yes, Forest beat West Ham 1-0 – and that’s a colossal win. They were helped by a terrific Declan Rice penalty, but they won’t care about that. I guess what Chelsea have is three forwards capable of improvisational brilliance. I’m not sure they have the kind of mix that will make them as unstoppable as Sean-Kuluszewski-Kane can be and they haven’t got into their groove yet, but they have enough to nail any defense on a good day. Chelsea, I imagine, will want their front three to come to Spurs from unusual areas. They don’t have a proper striker so will rely on clever movement and passing to open things up. Looking at the lineups, I kind of like Spurs. Both teams are a bit slow in midfield – or have a slow midfielder – but I think Spurs have more dynamism in attack. You can easily see them getting in behind Chelsea’s full-backs, and Chelsea don’t really have players quick enough to handle it. At the City Ground, Nottingham Forest lead West Ham 1-0 with, for added joy, Dean Henderson playing a blinder. Watch the end of this one with Rob Smyth, here: Unusually for a game with so much history, its biggest iteration has come in recent times. Oh my days this was glorious. enjoy! As for Spurs, they are unchanged from last weekend’s thrashing by Southampton. That means Antonio Conte’s main summer signings – Ivan Perisic, Yves Bissouma and Richarlison – are back on the bench. I would be interested to know why Conte did this – is he asserting his authority and telling the players that positions have to be earned? Or is he saying that the new kids don’t know what he wants from them yet? that the old ones are better? Below, I’ve also given Chelsea’s formation as 3-4-3, but 3-4-2-1 might be more accurate. Not sure why you’d want Raheem Sterling in the middle – his movement is great but his finishing not so much. I guess he might be able to play off Kai Havertz, but the balance of the front three doesn’t seem write me. Two changes for Chelsea, who bring on Marc Cucurella for a home debut, along with Ruben Loftus-Cheek. Cesar Azpilicueta and Ben Chilwell leave. My instinct is that Rhys James plays on the right of midfield with Cucurella at left centre-back and Loftus-Cheek on the left of midfield, but they may all change in the first round, with James at the back, Cucurella on the left and Loftus-Cheek on the right. Updated at 16.43 BST
Team’s!
Chelsea (3-4-3): Mendy? Silva, Coulibaly, Cucumber? James, Kante, Jorginho, Loftus-Cheek? Mount, Sterling, Havertz. Subs: Kepa, Pulisic, Chaloba, Broja, Žižek, Gallagher, Hudson-Odoi, Chilwell. Tottenham (3-4-3): Lloris? Rosemary, Dier, Davies; Royal, Bentancur, Highland, Sessegnon; Kulusevski, Kane, Son. Subs: Forster, Doherty, Sanchez, Gill, Perisic, Richarlison, Moura, Tanganga, Bisuma. Referee: Anthony Taylor (Wythenshawe)
Preamble
On 16 December 2007, Arsenal played Chelsea and Manchester United visited Anfield, a strange quirk of the fixture calendar that magically allows Sky to watch their channel for almost a full day. This unusual coincidence stopped after a while and for the best – but somehow, it seems relevant this afternoon. Chelsea v Spurs is one of the great games of English football, overflowing with flourishes and history. And with both sides now pretty good, it comes packed with more intensity, making a muggy Saturday afternoon in August entirely the wrong place for it. It takes howling wind, rain and soul-chilling cold, breath visible in the night air, and adults doing the ridiculous antics that the sun and summer don’t favor. But since we’re back to playing matches randomly, where it belongs is where it is, and that should be the absolute best. Just a few months ago, things were looking strange for Chelsea, the provenance of Roman Abramovich’s money – and the glory it bought – finally catching up with them, their future as a powerhouse clearly in jeopardy. Except that Todd Boehly and his friends have, so far, delivered on their promises, throwing cash like confetti and bolstering a team that was already pretty comfortable. Whether it’s good enough to challenge for the league title…
