Chelsea will be looking for a second successive Premier League double over fierce rivals Tottenham on Thursday evening as football returns in the English top-flight.
In what feels like an eternity, and in modern day football it actually is an eternity, the Premier League has finally returned after being deprived of the luxury for two-and-a-half weeks. The Blues welcome Spurs to Stamford Bridge in a crucial encounter for the hosts as they look to take another step towards Champions League football for the 2025/26 campaign.
Chelsea defeated Tottenham in a seven-goal thriller towards the start of December - in what was, incidentally, the Blues' last away victory in the league. Spurs rushed to an early two-goal lead on their home patch after some shoddy defending from the visitors allowed Dominic Solanke and Dejan Kulusevski to score for the hosts, but Chelsea found a route back into the game on 17 minutes via a long distance strike from Jadon Sancho.
Cole Palmer then equalised from the spot on the hour-mark before Enzo Fernandez put Chelsea ahead for the first time at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Palmer scored from the spot yet again around 10 minutes later with a cheeky 'Panenka', before Son Heung-min grabbed a consolation goal deep into stoppage time in north London.
At half-time, Enzo Maresca made a change, with Romeo Lavia being taken off in place of Malo Gusto. Lavia hurt his hamstring, which later saw him ruled out for a month, so Maresca chose to tweak things from a tactical perspective. While Chelsea were pushing for an equaliser in the first-half, the Blues looked a lot more threatening in the second-half and made the pressure count with a ruthless display in front of goal to ensure a memorable victory over their city rivals.
"There was no problem first-half," Maresca said after the game. "The plan was working well, we were attacking and controlling the game after conceding two goals. I was very happy.
"The only thing was watching the way they were pressing. First-half, we had Cole Palmer and Enzo Fernandez on the other [side]. Second-half, we had Palmer on one side, and [Marc] Cucurella on the other, and we changed something in behind. It was for this season, it worked quite well and we won the game."
Palmer was instrumental on the day. While both his goals were penalties, he was still ice-cold in the pressured moments in such an important game. As well as this, he was the man for Chelsea; the man everyone went through to make things happen in the attacking third.
Maresca will be hoping for a similar performance from the 22-year-old on Thursday night. Palmer returned to training towards the end of last week after missing Chelsea's defeat to Arsenal (and England's wins against Albania and Latvia) with a slight muscular injury. However, he is now in contention to face Spurs this week and continue his fine record for Chelsea against the north Londoners - with three goals against Thursday's opponents in as many games.