What Chelsea Did Wrong vs Tottenham

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Chelsea v Newcastle United Premier League 27/10/2024. General view of outside Stamford Bridge during the Premier League match between Chelsea and Newcastle United at Stamford Bridge, London, England on 27 October… | Source: Lastwordonsports.com - Alex Richards, LWOF EditorAfter a stellar run following the international break, things came crashing down for Chelsea as they lost 2-0 to Tottenham Hotspur at the weekend. This marked an extremely rare defeat at Stamford Bridge to the Lilywhites, a crack in a strong record of home wins that has left fans reeling. In this, we will be looking at what Xabi Alonso did wrong as he watched his team stutter to a defeat.

Why Chelsea Lost to Tottenham HotspurIMAGO / Every Second MediaAverage PositionsThe average positions for the Blues team shows a very erratic unit, it was entirely different to the rigid 3-4-3 of the season opener and the fluid destruction from the win over Everton. Notably, there were large gaps that went unfilled, with Moises Caicedo and Jordan Henderson lower while Cole Palmer was high, Pedro Neto was totally isolated out on the right.

>The left-hand side was far less convoluted than it was against the Toffees. In that game, Morgan Rogers, Joao Pedro, and Jorrel Hato were almost one tight blob on the average position map. For this fixture, it was much more isolated with the left back staying deeper, Geovany Quenda coming in and occupying a left midfield space, while Rogers drifted a bit to that side.

>There was no central penetration offered, it was a system that tried to put three players high and space them out but it resulted in a failure to progress the ball, leaving Chelsea with very little of the possession, and even fewer ideas to break down a strong line.

No StrikerPedro missed the squad entirely due to injury and his absence was quite noticeable. Danny Welbeck was left on the bench due to his physical limitations, but one could argue he would have provided a more consistent focal point. The heat map for Rogers largely saw him try and occupy his usual spots as an attacking midfielder while Palmer was trying to do a bit of everything; it was almost like having two false nines but no real penetration of a high line.

>The idea of playing in behind was hurt with the lack of an off-the-shoulder runner, especially as Antonin Kinsky is an adequate sweeper and pushed beyond his box regularly. Without a real central focus, there was nobody tying together the progression or stretching the back line with runs in behind and it left the Blues lacking for ideas that weren’t coming off high turnovers.

Geovany Quenda’s UseQuenda got the nod to start on the left side of the attack in this one and it caused a pretty notable shift in how everyone around him played. Instead of coming inside to help the attack he largely stayed wide and deeper, but also pushed Hato back more. In the win over Everton, the left-back was getting into great positions high on the left and joining in on passing circuits with the attackers, but against Tottenham we saw more reservations about pushing forward due to the doubts over Quenda and whether he could track back enough.

>If they wanted to keep the former Sporting man wide, they could have used Neto as the striker with Palmer and Rogers moving inside and tilting to the right. This could isolate Quenda and push the right-back forward more. It would have been a slight tweak but would have been able to use Neto’s pace to push the back line and create overloads somewhere instead of the big distant gaps we saw in the passing maps and average position map.

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