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Tottenham have tended to reserve their very best performances for the other big teams in the Premier League.
Already this season, Manchester rivals United and City have been vanquished by Ange Postecoglou's side, while they showed a lot of resolve when going down 1-0 to Arsenal in September.
Though one could argue that their sternest test yet will come on Sunday when they welcome Enzo Maresca's rejuvenated and bullish young side to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. And following a demoralising defeat by Bournemouth on Thursday night, Postecoglou will be desperate to see a reaction from his troops.
The depth Tottenham fans' anger towards the Australian was on full display at the Vitality Stadium when the former Celtic manager became embroiled in a heated exchange with his own supporters. Last term, a thrilling and often bizarre edition of this fixture marked the end of Postecoglou's honeymoon, with goals from Nicolas Jackson and Cole Palmer downing a depleted Spurs.
Another loss in that vein could spell the end of the Postcoglou era all together. This time around the home outfit will be without the likes of Micky van de Ven, Christian Romero and Guglielmo Vicario and their absence from the matchday squad excludes them from consideration from a combined XI with Sunday's opponents.
But which other Spurs stars have shown enough this season to force their way into a starting line up comprising of stars from the London rivals?
Filip Jorgensen
Yes, Enzo Maresca defiantly claimed that the only player in his squad sure to start against Tottenham will be Robert Sanchez but I can't deny what I see with my own eyes. One of his goalkeeping options is a 22-year-old, increasingly reliable, shot stopper and the other is Robert Sanchez.
In fairness to the Spaniard, his form has marginally improved of late but Jorgensen surely deserves a run in the team after his impressive performance in the Conference League. This point also requires qualification because are competing in a competition they have no right to be in. But against Heidenheim, one of the favourites for the trophy, The Dane proved his quality with some outstanding stops.
He was also given the nod by Maresca in their emphatic 5-1 win over Southampton on Wednesday night as the Chelsea boss finally rewarded some of his European squad with a taste of Premier League action.
Had Vicario been fit he would have given Jorgensen a run for his money but the former Villarreal stopper is well worth an inclusion in this squad. Maresca ought to promote him to No 1 already.
Malo Gusto
Chelsea skipper Reece James has only made four appearances for the Blues this season but the reason no one is really concerned is because of the development of Gusto.
Brought in from Lyon for £26million last January, the 21-year-old has turned skeptics into believers with a string of impressive performances at the back for the west London outfit.
The French international's displays even prompted Maresca to play James in an unfamiliar left-back to ensure that Gusto continued in his preferred position. Tottenham's Pedro Porro makes a decent claim to be included but the Spaniard lacks the completeness that is found in Gusto's game.
Levi Colwill
'I would be scared to play against us,' Colwill boldly stated ahead of Chelsea's clash against Aston Villa. It was a claim that looked sure to backfire at the earliest opportunity but the two matches that have followed have proved the 21-year-old right.
Maresca's side have only lost two games this season; at home to Manchester City on the opening day and away to Liverpool. And they are the league's highest scorers and boast its joint-fourth best defence.
Colwill can take particular credit for the last point, as his partnership with the now injured Wesley Fofana providing the side the perfect platform to build on. The defender is far from the finished product, nor should he be at his tender age. But he is gradually maturing in a fine centre back who could anchor defences for club and country for many years to come.
Radu Dragusin
Fortunate to get the nod due to the absences of the aforementioned Fofana, Van de Ven and Romero, Dragusin has nonetheless done okay for Postecoglou's side.
Admittedly, that is not the most glowing appraisal of his performances, perhaps the point is better explained by saying that the Romanian has shown that he is not responsible for Tottenham's failings.
The 22-year-old has played all 90 minutes in each of Spurs' last four matches, games that include big wins over Aston Villa and Manchester City. However, he was similarly involved as the side failed to beat Fulham and lost at home to Ipswich.
Still, he has deputised well in the absence of Tottenham's first-choice pairing and may even be able to make a case to keep his place when Postecoglou has a fully-fit squad, that's if he can keep improving.
Marc Cucurella
Marc Cucurella might be the best left-back in the Premier League right now. Few players change minds after being brandished a flop but thanks to his exploits with his country and domestic performances, the 26-year-old is starting to get the recognition he deserves.
The former Brighton star has featured in all of Chelsea's league fixtures this term, save for their 2-1 defeat at Anfield and he has done a better job than any defender martialing Arsenal's Bukayo Saka.
Another well-rounded Blues defender, Cucurella is in the form of his life and showing no signs of slowing down.
Moises Caicedo
Few players change minds after being brandished a flop and that statement hold greater weight for the Colombian than even his team-mate above. At the centre of well-publicised tug-of-war last season, Caicedo eventually completed a £115million move to Stamford Bridge and it's fair to say, collapsed under the weight of expectation.
Things did improve for the 23-year-old as the season went on but now with 2023-24 firmly in the rear-view mirror, Caicedo is finally showing Chelsea fans what their club paid for. Caicedo has been ever present for Maresca in the league this year, while zero Conference League minutes show he is just as important to the Chelsea boss as Cole Palmer.
The combative midfielder has even started to add goal contributions to his game, with him currently having one goal and two assists to his name from 14 games, which is just one assist shy of what he managed during the entirety of last season.
Enzo Fernandez
Chelsea spent big on the midfield pairing they have been running with in recent weeks and they are finally starting to convince in tandem. Fernandez has had to bide his time in the Conference League squad for the first couple of months of the season as Romeo Lavia impressed, but the youngsters injury has opened the door to the Argentinian and he has responded with some of his best performances in a Chelsea shirt.
The 23-year-old appears to finally be liberated of the pressure that came with his big-money signing almost two years ago and the emergence of Cole Palmer has removed the pressure to provide match-winning contributions.
Fernandez has started each of Chelsea's last three games as captain and has five goal contributions in his last four Premier League matches for the club.
His return to form has given Maresca a selection headache but its one the Italian will be thrilled to try and figure out.
Cole Palmer
It's fair to say that this has been a slightly more testing campaign for the reigning PFA Young Player of the Year, as Premier League defences have focused even more of their attention on stopping the 22-year-old.
And he is forced to perform under the weight of expectation his remarkable debut campaign in Stamford Bridge produced. Despite that, Palmer still has nine goals and six assists from 14 league games.
He has every chance of bettering improving on his number last term and in a more complete Blues roster, who knows how far that could take them?
Son Heung-min
The Tottenham skipper may not be the vintage version of himself anymore but he remains a danger in and around the area. The 32-year-old has a decent return of three goals and four assists from his 10 Premier League matches, which, when compared to the likes of Mo Salah and Bukayo Saka, does not appear to be overly impressive but given his age, his contribution has been valuable.
Son has chipped in with vital moments in recent Spurs wins against City and Villa but he has been forced to play down the middle of late with the injury to Dominic Solanke.
Back in his preferred left wing position, Son still has plenty to offer this Tottenham team.
Dejan Kulusevski
The Swedish winger has arguably been Tottenham's best player this season and has shown a previously unseen versatility that has aided his side during their injury problems.
Kulusevski may only have two goals and three assists from his 14 Premier League appearances but a lot of his best work is done before the ball hits the back of the net or the final pass is made.
The 24-year-old is an exceptional ball carrier and, like many of his team-mates, has reserved his best displays for the big boys of the division.
Nicolas Jackson
The 23-year-old is the third Chelsea player on this list to have radically altered public perception in the last few months. In fairness to Jackson, his performances have tended upwards for some time now, with a positive run at the end of the last campaign seeing him end an impressive debut season with 14 goals.
This term he has already netted eight times in the Premier League and he has provided three assists for the Blues who are the league's top scorers.
Jackson's form and relationship with talisman Palmer has been so impressive that Maresca has been unable to bring in Christian Nkunku who is actually the club's top scorer thanks to his exploits in the Conference League.
The Senegalese bagged one of the least impressive hat-tricks in this fixture last season. His transformation above all has been a sight to behold.
Tottenham have beaten big clubs this season, but have slipped up in other games
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Trying to make sense of Tottenham is, and always has been, an impossible task. For starters, consider this: ahead of this weekend, only Liverpool and Chelsea had scored more goals than Ange Postecoglou’s side. Only Liverpool and Arsenal had conceded fewer. Only those three teams boasted a better goal difference. They sat first, second and third in the Premier League table.
Tottenham, meanwhile, are in 11th place.
A 4-0 win at Manchester City. Another convincing victory at Old Trafford. Thumping 4-1 wins over Aston Villa and West Ham.
And yet they’ve also had a 1-0 defeat at Crystal Palace. Another, this week, at Bournemouth. A draw at home to Fulham. A 2-1 defeat at home to Ipswich, the Tractor Boys’ first top-flight win in 22 years.
No wonder Postecoglou looks like a broken man. No wonder the fans are angry.
But how? Why can Tottenham beat the big clubs but get turned over by those they should beat other than just shrugging your shoulders and saying, ‘Well, it’s just Tottenham, innit…’
TOTTENHAM REALLY ARE NOT A POSSESSION TEAM
Postecoglou wants his teams to play out from the back. In this column recently, Mail Sport revealed how Tottenham play the shortest goal-kicks of all teams in the division.
Only Manchester City have had more possession this season. The problem is... Tottenham still aren’t a possession team. They are still at their best when they don’t have the ball. Their nine goals from counter-attacks is the most of any side this season.
Of the seven games this term in which they enjoyed most of the ball, Tottenham have won once, against Everton. They lost five of the others and drew against Leicester, and they nearly lost that. Four points.
Of the seven games where they have had the least of it, it’s five wins, a draw and only one defeat. Sixteen points.
His side are packed with pacy wingers who love to spring forward on the break. They don’t have that many midfielders who can pick a lock from deep with the ball at their feet.
On the list of midfielders with the most passes into the final third before this weekend, the first Tottenham name to appear is James Maddison in 16th, with players from 14 different clubs above him.
AWAY DAY BLUES
Those big wins at the Etihad and Old Trafford are the exceptions to the rule under Postecoglou.
Ange’s side have lost eight of their last 12 league games on the road but their struggles stretch far beyond that.
Throughout his entire reign at Spurs, he’s won 65 per cent of his home Premier League games and only 35 per cent of his away games.
Across the 26 home league games in Ange’s tenure, Spurs have taken 151 more shots than their opponents with a goal difference of +21. On the road, over the same number of games, they have only had two more shots than their opponents and scored just five more goals.
For a team who thrive on the counter, despite how much their manager wants them to keep the ball, struggling on the road goes against the usual theory that home sides will come at you more and allow you to hit them on the break.
In fact, home teams allow Tottenham more of the ball than when they’re on their own turf.
Spurs have more passes on the road but fewer in the final third. They have more of the ball but create fewer chances and have fewer shots and have fewer touches in the box.
They allow their opponents far more chances than at home, too, especially down their right flank.
Only three teams lose possession more often in their own third away from home than Spurs, and, under Postecoglou, Tottenham’s opponents have had more than double the number of shots after winning the ball high up the pitch — and more than three times as many of their shots end up in the Spurs net.
You can’t press if you have the ball. But you can be pressed.
‘We’ve again allowed a game of football to get away from us, and a lot of it is self-inflicted,’ said Postecoglou after the Bournemouth defeat. ‘We don’t do ourselves any favours by allowing the opposition to play the game they want to.’
That leads to mistakes. This season, Tottenham have made almost twice as many errors leading to shots in away games than at home but, crucially, all seven of those mistakes on the road have been inside their own box.
You cannot make mistakes like that and not, eventually, pay the price.
NO FIGHT WHEN IT GETS TIGHT
To accuse Tottenham of not having the stomach for the fight when things get tough is a bit of a lazy cliche these days but the facts this season are as follows: when Spurs win, they win big. When they don’t win big, they often lose.
Take their six league victories this season. Two by four goals, three by three goals and one by two. All six of their defeats have come by a single goal.
Postecoglou admits his squad lack ‘leadership and maturity’. Only two of Tottenham’s outfielders are over 30. Only six of them have played more than 100 Premier League games. Arsenal’s squad has 13 outfielders in the 100 club. Manchester City have 12.
Meanwhile, three of the four players signed by Daniel Levy in the summer were teenagers.
SHEETS ARE TOO DIRTY
Spurs don’t concede many but they don’t win the tight games because they don’t keep enough clean sheets. Just one in their last 22 home league games, a streak running back to November last year. Since then, no side in England’s top four tiers have fewer home clean sheets than Tottenham.
Tottenham have now fallen behind 13 times at home in 2024, one shy of a Premier League record for a calendar year.
At least when they concede at home, it’s not the end of things. It actually sparks something. Spurs have gained nine points from losing positions at home this season. Away from home, zero. When they go behind on the road, as they did at Bournemouth, it’s curtains.
For once, it’s not all to do with set-pieces. For all the talk of Tottenham’s Achilles’ heel, they’ve only conceded three goals from corners this season. That’s the same as set-piece kings Arsenal.
ARE THEY KNACKERED?
Tottenham looked spent at Bournemouth on Thursday night.
Eight of Postecoglou’s squad have played more than 900 league minutes this season; ahead of the weekend only Newcastle had more. There’s plenty of other teams on eight but none play as intensely as Postecoglou wants his Spurs side to compete.
No team sprinted more than Tottenham over the first 14 games. Only the Cherries covered more distance. No side have won more possession in the final third than Spurs.
Of those players with more than 900 league minutes, Tottenham were the only team with two players in the top five for distance covered per 90 minutes: Dejan Kulusevski and Dominic Solanke.
No one has applied more pressure on their opponents this season than Solanke. No wonder he dropped to his knees after Spurs knocked City out of the Carabao Cup.
No wonder, too, that Tottenham are struggling with injuries. Postecoglou is without first-choice centre backs Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero and is now without Ben Davies as well.
For a team who play at full tilt, it’s putting the squad, performances and, crucially, results under strain.
Enzo Maresca insists Chelsea are not favourites to beat Tottenham, despite some Spurs supporters claiming on radio phone-ins they are tempted to stay away from Sunday's London derby out of fear of a humiliating spanking.
Ange Postecoglou’s team find themselves in a tough moment, two weeks on from their 4-0 beating of Manchester City.
‘First of all, the fans are going to be there, no doubt,’ Maresca said. ‘And second, we are not favourite, absolutely not. ‘They are playing European competition, like us, we are there. But not because we are second in the table, we are favourite, absolutely not.’
Like Chelsea now, Tottenham were briefly talked up as Premier League title contenders last season under Postecoglou, but Maresca says he is not using Spurs’ sudden struggle as a lesson to be learned.
‘I don’t think we need Ange’s experience or Tottenham’s experience to understand things can change quick,’ he said. ‘Every season in football, in England, in Spain, in Italy, every country, things can change quick.’
Chelsea's loathing for their crosstown rivals is so strong some fans use their 55-year-old walk-on anthem as a vessel for bashing, regardless of the fixture
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Liquidator is a 1969 reggae track with Hammond organ crescendos so rousing that the Jamaican record producer Harry J figured no vocals were necessary. Clearly, that is not an opinion shared by the thousands at Stamford Bridge who have taken to weaponising the instrumental chorus with their own lyrics.
‘We hate Tottenham! Chelsea!’ Hatred for them, love for us, in that order before each and every game, whoever the opponent. Not all Chelsea fans are fond of their 55-year-old walk-on anthem being used as a vessel for bashing, insisting you can loathe that lot without spoiling our song, but it serves as a regular reminder of this rivalry’s standing.
The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium DJ will not encourage Chelsea's away end by throwing Liquidator into Sunday's pre-match playlist, no petrol needed on this fire after a history so venomously colourful it involves meat hooks and electrified fencing as well as the odd classic scoreline.
In search of its origins, before there was even a flicker of a feud, Mail Sport was told to look back to the 1967 FA Cup final – or the ‘Cockney Cup final’ as it was christened as the first all-London affair. Two of Chelsea’s own in Jimmy Greaves and Terry Venables starred for their victorious opponents. Tottenham had been winning trophies when they weren’t. Bitterness was brewing, so say the historians.
We phoned John Boyle for verification. He’s 77 years young today, but was 20 when he started for Chelsea that day in front of 100,000 fans at Wembley Stadium. Surprisingly, he said there was no ill will. ‘I don’t think there was,’ Boyle told us. ‘I never saw any trouble. It started after that. Tottenham, Arsenal, West Ham, all the London teams, I don’t know if there was a big difference at the time. I never thought there was a rivalry with Spurs back then.’
The columnists concurred as Wembley was a serene scene, with the former Daily Express sportswriter Desmond Hackett commenting on his dispatch: ‘I enthused that this would be a joyous, knees-up, knocked-'em-in-the-Old-King's-Road affair. Unhappily, Tottenham's 2-1 win over Chelsea was as sedate as a tea party at Buckingham Palace, apart from the lamentable fact that the Queen did not attend.’ However, Boyle did add: ‘Although the ’67 final was hard to take for the fans.’
That frustration may be why the next time they met, in the First Division at White Hart Lane in November 1967, dozens were arrested during crowd disturbances. One chap was nicked for hiding a meat hook, another for concealing a sandbag, a third for carrying a metal cosh.
Similar stories cropped up from then on as English football entered an early era of hooliganism. March 1969, a 1-0 win for Tottenham with Notting Hill Gate and Earls Court among the London underground stations trashed by supporters who also slashed seats on carriages. October 1972, a 1-0 victory for Chelsea in which troublemakers tossed fireworks at one another from the terraces.
Boyle suggested we look further forward, to once he had left Chelsea in 1973. Inevitably that took us to April 1975, a game in which both sides knew their First Divisions statuses depended as the newspapers said the losers would take a walk down ‘death row’. Eddie McCreadie was only two days into the job as Blues boss when he selected an 18-year-old called Ray Wilkins as captain, axing a legend in John Hollins.
The atmosphere at White Hart Lane was animalistic. Kick-off was delayed as supporters spilled on to the pitch in scraps. Pat Jennings was kicked in the shin by one intruder, but the Tottenham goalkeeper gave his assailant a booting back and the young fan limped away feeling like he had received the goal-kick treatment.
While Chelsea’s current ownership hope their faith in youth is rewarded on Sunday, McCreadie was not. His team lost 2-0. Tottenham survived on 34 points. Chelsea dropped down to the Second Division on 33. Even younger than Wilkins that day was Teddy Maybank, handed his Chelsea debut at the age of 18. Today he is 68, and Mail Sport’s next phone call after Boyle.
‘It was tremendously violent,’ Maybank told us. ‘When we got there, it was like something out of a different world, horrendous. It was lethal, not a nice place to be. In the dressing room, we heard it all kicking off and we didn’t even want to go out to have a look.’
Boyle had to pop out to hand his parents their tickets. Thankfully as a teenage debutant, he could ghost through the war zone without being recognised. ‘It was the scariest moment of my life,’ he continued. ‘You’ll always remember it. Always. It sticks with you, the aggression. Whoever lost that game was relegated. The tension was ridiculous. It’s a shame I didn’t have enough experience to go out and play with a free head.’
And yet, Boyle added he would go through it all over again, because this is the game you live for. Arsenal, Fulham, Crystal Palace, West Ham, Brentford, they’re all closer to Chelsea in SW6 than Tottenham in N17. But it means more than mere geography. Safe to say, then, the rivalry was alive and, certainly in Jennings’ case, kicking in 1975? ‘Definitely,’ Boyle said. ‘Without a doubt. For them to send us down, that hurt, really hurt.’
There are too many memorable matches to mention between then and now, plus a forest full of paperwork filed by coppers patrolling Fulham Road and that mile-long march to Seven Sisters, with the National Front infiltration into Chelsea's fanbase adding to the aggro.
In April 1985, a 12ft-high anti-hooligan electrified fence was erected at Stamford Bridge before the visit of Tottenham, though Greater London Council banned the barbed pitch perimeter from zapping anyone tempted to try to invade. Another story from New Year’s Day in 1986 goes that a few Chelsea fans’ knuckles were still too clean for their liking when their morning match with West Ham at Upton Park was postponed because of a frozen pitch, so they travelled to Highbury instead to liven up Tottenham’s goalless draw at Arsenal.
There was Chelsea’s 6-1 Premier League win at White Hart Lane in December 1997 in which Tore Andre Flo scored a hat-trick. Dennis Wise featured that day and word is he would take it upon himself to teach foreign imports the importance of winning these derbies.
There was Tottenham’s 5-1 League Cup semi-final second-leg victory at the same venue in January 2002, completing a turnaround after the first leg was marred by missile throwing, including coins aimed at Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink.
It was in the same competition in February 2008 that Spurs secured their last trophy, Chelsea’s cabinet since crammed via the wallet of Roman Abramovich, who might have opted to buy their rivals were it not for Sven-Goran Eriksson advising him to choose blue over white. Abramovich became attuned to the animosity, Carlton Cole claiming his transfer was cancelled when the Russian informed him: ‘You can’t go to Spurs, I don’t do business with them.’
The Battle of the Bridge came in May 2016, a 2-2 draw which confirmed Claudio Ranieri’s Leicester as 5,000-1 champions. Mark Clattenburg told Mail Sport that was ‘by far the hardest match I have ever refereed’, adding: ‘There was so much at stake and you could sense the tension. There would have been few complaints if I had sent off four players that night but equally I could have been accused of ruining what was a great game. I don't think I could have won.’
There was Tottenham's 3-1 Premier League win in April 2018, their first at Stamford Bridge in 28 years after being the gift that kept on giving for too long. Then Chelsea’s 4-1 victory last season when Ange Postecoglou’s high line acted as a noose around the team’s neck, beautifully bonkers though it was for neutrals. Not even that scoreline earned Mauricio Pochettino forgiveness from the Chelsea fans who hated the Tottenham blood in his veins.
You need to be special to be universally loved, and Greaves was that, a scorer of 132 goals in 169 games for Chelsea and 266 in 379 for Tottenham.
Some years ago, Stamford Bridge officials added one of his quotes to a wall in the home dressing room, reading: ‘It’s probably the greatest name in the world: Chelsea. You think about it. It conjures up the best part of the biggest city in the world.’ He was adored, Greavsie, with the two teams’ supporters setting aside their hatred before their meeting in September 2021 to mark his passing at the age of 81. Among those present to pay tribute were Micky Hazard, Graham Roberts and Glenn Hoddle, three men who also represented these two rivals.
And now for the next instalment. Tottenham may remind us how their true enemies are Arsenal. Some at Chelsea may claim they find Liverpool more loathsome, and certainly the away end in Southampton on Wednesday went through their full repertoire of songs reserved for their Scouse foes.
But there will be no love lost on Sunday. Not before, not during, not after. History, and the lyrics inserted into Liquidator, tells us so.
The shadow of Chelsea’s last trip to Tottenham loomed as Ange Postecoglou fielded questions about misfiring form and urged fans to hold their nerve.
That 4-1 defeat in November 2023 was his first as Spurs boss. The Ange Ball revolution was ablaze on a wild night in north London as he refused to yield his high-line principles, despite two red cards and two key injuries.
His sheer b*llsy intent was celebrated by fans convinced their club had recaptured its soul and yet the Blues make the same journey across the capital on Sunday amid evidence that patience might be wearing thin in N17 after some faltering results.
‘That will be dependent on what people see, what people feel,’ said Postecoglou on the question of his bond with supporters. ‘The only way I can affect that is by what we produce on game days.’
And it felt as if he had Mikel Arteta’s haphazard first phase as Arsenal boss in mind when he said: ‘If you stick to a plan and get through difficult moments when there’s dissension among supporters, you forget about that when you’re on the other side. It’s about winning but it’s about belief as well. You look beyond the results. That’s what happened at the start of my tenure. We lost against Chelsea but there was a sense we were building something. Obviously, it kind of went off the rails after that game. It’s not just about winning, but where we are right now it will certainly help.’
Spurs have lost as many as they have won in the Premier League since that Chelsea defeat. They sit 10th after Thursday’s 1-0 defeat at Bournemouth, which was flattering and prompted fans in the away end to turn on Postecoglou when he crossed the pitch to hear what they wanted to get off their chests.
‘Maybe people thought it wasn’t the right thing to do,’ said Postecoglou. ‘My wife certainly didn’t, so I got some feedback there as well. But that’s OK. I’m not going to change. It’s who I am. I’ve been like that my whole career and I won’t change.
‘It’s on me and whatever you’ve got to direct, direct it at me. And I’m listening. I’m listening, I’m looking, I’m understanding.’
Only a fortnight earlier, the away end had been rapturous as Spurs beat Manchester City 4-0 at the Etihad Stadium. They won 3-0 at Manchester United this season. They put four past Aston Villa, Everton and West Ham.
‘When we’ve won we’ve been compelling,’ said Postecoglou. ‘It’s not been struggling victories. Just about every game we’ve won we’ve been very, very dominant and the team we want to be but that gets diminished by performances like the one at Bournemouth.’
Yet the summer transfer strategy combined with a long casualty list leaves the squad looking callow, and short of natural leaders.
From this perspective it seems remiss to have encouraged Eric Dier, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Emerson Royal to leave. Not only did they offer experience but defensive instinct, something else Spurs lack until you realise Postecoglou recoils against cautious, safety-first football.
He wants defenders squeezing out to win the ball in midfield. He wants midfielders pressing in step with the forwards. He does not want anybody dropping deep to mop up danger. Instead, they must be quick to recover or cynical enough to stop counter-attacking moves at source.
‘We can’t change if I keep everyone,’ said Postecoglou. ‘I can’t just keep adding to the squad and I couldn’t let a 28-year-old go and sign a 28-year-old because that wasn’t where we were at. We had to sign younger players and start building. If I was worried about my own existence, I’d have fought tooth and nail to block Harry Kane leaving but it wasn’t the right decision for the club because he was in the last year of his contract. The decisions we made around signing young players are the right decisions for this club for where we are at right now and they will bear fruit.’
Still, two weeks into a five-week cycle of Thursday-Sunday fixtures and the squad looks desperately thin. Cristian Romero could return against Chelsea as Ben Davies joins three others with hamstring injuries.
There is, however, little scope to wriggle with selection or make changes from the bench — vital in a high-tempo style and with five subs available and in stark contrast to the wealth of options at Enzo Maresca’s disposal.
Chelsea will have had a day’s more rest than Spurs for this one. Maresca rested half his first team and coasted past 10-man Southampton on Wednesday.
Postecoglou does not have that luxury, and he goes straight from a London derby into the hostility of Rangers at Ibrox in the Europa League, before a trip to Southampton and home games against Manchester United, in the Carabao Cup, and Liverpool.
It is a brutal schedule for a team on their knees and a manager fighting to persuade the world it will all be fine in the end.
The euphoria of Manchester City already seems like a long time ago for Ange Postecoglou.
Twelve days since the four-goal romp at the home of the champions have brought him problems and setbacks at every turn like an advent calendar from hell.
Injuries and illnesses have stacked against him and three fixtures in eight days have brought him no wins.
Equalisers were conceded at home against Roma and Fulham and his depleted side did not deserve anything at Bournemouth, who climbed above them in the table.
Fans in the away booed the Spurs boss after the final whistle and his team looked flat and tired and copped another injury with Ben Davies limping off in the second half after pulling a hamstring.
They were also fortunate not to concede more than the one goal scored in the first half by teenager centre-half Dean Huijsen.
Marcus Tavernier and Dango Outtara missed the target with glorious chances to make it 2-0 in the closing minutes. Fraser Forster stood firm to save from Enes Unal and substitute Lucas Bergvall blocked from Tyler Adams.
That brilliant 4-0 win at City is the outlier for Postecoglou.
It is the only win in six games in all competitions, with in-form Chelsea visiting on Sunday with an extra day of rest in the tank and a much stronger squad to select from.
Spurs arrived missing seven through injury and suspension, but Dominic Solanke was back after illness to start against the club he left in the summer and Archie Gray shook off the dead leg he picked up in Sunday’s draw with Fulham to make his first Premier League start.
Gray came in to give Pedro Porro a breather but ended up in central defence.
Tottenham though started well enough. Dejan Kulusevski had the first effort of the game, firing straight at Kepa Arrizabalaga after good work by James Maddison, who made a positive start, finding time and space in midfield as the visitors settled quickest and dominated the opening phase.
Maddison released Solanke, who fired over under pressure from Huijsen, the 19-year-old defender deputising for Marcos Senesi and who became Bournemouth’s youngest Premier League goal scorer when he opened the scoring in the 17th minute.
Forster made a block at his near post to deny Evanilson as Bournemouth’s first genuine attack of the game ended with a ricochet in the penalty box falling kindly for the Brazilian via Radu Dragusin and Destiny Udogie.
From the corner that followed, Huijsen wriggled free with a simple run around the back of the crowd and arrived unmarked to plant a firm downward header past Forster from Tavernier’s expert dead-ball delivery.
Tottenham’s vulnerability from set-pieces became a theme throughout last season. It drew much criticism to the annoyance of Postecoglou. They have been more solid this season in general, but they conceded a late equaliser from the second phase of a corner last week against Roma.
Now this, and it seemed to drain some of their confidence. Suddenly, the crisp passing patterns of appeared more difficult to stitch together and Bournemouth became more assertive on the ball and the contest more even.
Tavernier had the ball in the net but had strayed a yard offside before the pass by Evanilson and Forster made a vital save just before the interval.
Milos Kerkez overlapping on the left found Tavernier and his glancing header looked to be destined for the net when the Spurs keeper, making his third appearance in a row since Guglielmo Vicario broke an ankle, reacted quickly and saved low with his left hand.
Postecoglou resisted the urge to make changes at half time and the pattern remained the same. Spurs took risks going forward and Bournemouth were always dangerous on the turnover, breaking at pace into wide open areas.
Kluivert sprinted clear of Udogie as they counterattacked from a Spurs corner but was unable to find a way past Forster from an angle, and a square pass to Evanilson might have been the better option.
Son supplied a brief boost when came on, full of purpose to replace Pape Matar Sarr. And Tottenham had a better balance with Johnson switched back to the right as part of the reshuffle.
Son found the net within seconds, tapping in a rebound as Kepa saved from Kulusevski but the flag went straight up and it was the right call.
Davies was forced off on his 300th Premier League appearance with what seemed to be a hamstring injury, leaving Spurs short of three central defenders. Gray moved alongside Dragusin and Porro came on and tested Kepa with a sweet strike but there were chances at both ends as the game ripped open.
Maddison went close, Forster saved from Evanilson and Ryan Christie clipped the outside of a post.
Forster saved his own blushes with a save after a careless pass was stolen by Adams. Evanilson put the rebound into the net but was offside and was denied by a VAR intervention. Ultimately, it did not matter.
Follow Mail Sport's live blog for the latest scores, team news and updates as Bournemouth host Tottenham and Fulham travel to Brighton in Premier League action.
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There have been times, such as when we hammered Man City recently, I may have briefly regretted giving up my Spurs season tickets after the best part of four decades.
OK, that was away. But some of the recent hell-for-leather football under Ange Postecoglou at what we used to call The Lane has been almost up there with Those Glory, Glory Days.
Bill Nicholson, the greatest Tottenham manager, part of Arthur Rowe’s legendary push-and-run side, and his Yorkshire disciple Keith Burkinshaw, would have approved.
Other tepid performances including the hopeless home defeat to Ipswich, not so much. But that’s beyond the point.
(And if I’m giving Ange the benefit of the doubt for now, it’s probably because we share a barber, Harry, who doesn’t have his work cut out with either of us these days. Though, to be fair, while he just runs the clippers over me, because I can’t be bothered any more, he does grease Ange’s receding barnet back over the bald patch.)
Then, last Friday, I remembered why I’d called it a day. Though I’m no longer one of Little Daniel Levy’s mug punters, nor a cash-cow Korean tourist, I’m still on the mailing list.
The following email dropped into my bulging inbox. Littered with hashtags, whatever they are, it featured a bunch of shiny, happy people posing behind the caption: ‘Proudly supporting Rainbow Laces.’ Hang on a minute, shouldn’t that be ‘Proudly Supporting Spurs’?
Apparently not. No wonder I’m Losing My Religion.
‘The Club is proud to show its support for the Rainbow Laces campaign at this weekend’s men’s home match against Fulham. The Rainbow Laces campaign celebrates stories of LGBTQ+ people within sport and aims to tackle discrimination at every level of the game.
‘During this Sunday’s match the campaign will be marked in a number of ways, including captains wearing rainbow-coloured armbands, rainbow-coloured corner flags and Tottenham Hotspur Stadium illuminating in rainbow colours after full-time.
‘This year, we will also be celebrating our Just Proud group, of which several are also members of the Proud Lilywhites.’
Say it loud, I’m white and I’m proud!
Er, not sure about that either. Claiming to be a ‘Proud Lilywhite’ may get you a dawn raid from the Old Bill’s Allison Pearson non-crime hate squad.
That email was a necessary reminder of why, as I have written here before, I hate virtually everything about modern professional football, apart from the football. And even that I can live without much of the time, especially the cheating, time-wasting, spitting and hideous Japanese gangster, right-up-your-neck tattoos.
I don’t go (or used to) to The Lane to be told what to think, how to behave, or how to vote.
Frankly, I’d grown sick and tired of the Premier League clambering on every passing ‘woke’ bandwagon, from ‘trans’ rights to climate change.
If I wanted to observe a minute’s silence before every game, I’d have gone to a funeral. I certainly don’t want to have to pay a few grand to be forced to suffer multi-millionaire players ‘taking the knee’ Starmer-style to Black Lives Matter – a fatuous gesture begun in the wake of the murder of serial criminal George Floyd by a police officer 4,000 miles away in Minnesota.
They don’t even take the knee at the Minnesota Vikings NFL stadium any more. That hasn’t stopped the Premier League and Sky, though.
And here, for the record, before the hysterical, screeching ‘racist, homophobe’ smear-mongering student union Guardianistas start jumping out of their boxes, I was presenting radio and TV shows back in 1990s with Paul Elliott of Kick It Out and arguing, on air and in print, in support of gays in the military. Some of my best friends, etc . . .
And I was appalled to read that the hugely talented comedian/actor Matt Lucas has been abused over his sexuality on his way to the Arsenal – or what we must now call ‘Keir Starmer’s Beloved Arsenal’ – and some of us from the Lilywhite bit of North London still call ‘Gillespie Road’.
That’s what the real hate crime squad should be concentrating on.
So, schtumm, the lot of you.
No, what this is about is the hijacking of ‘The People’s Game’ by pig-ignorant, Bible-burning, middle-class poseurs – something the great Julie Burchill, formerly of this parish, wrote about eloquently in the online magazine, Spiked, this week.
Anyway, if you don’t follow football, you may be wondering where all this is going. Bear with me.
When I read the ‘rainbow laces’ email a week ago, I had no idea it would blow up into a major news story – which the Boys (sorry, persons from the men’s game)) In The Football Bubble chose to ignore until a couple of days ago.
The balloon went up when Mark Guehi, the Crystal Palace captain and England centre-half, wrote ‘Jesus loves you’ in felt-tip on the rainbow armband he was told to wear. Guehi is a devout Christian whose dad is an evangelical preacher, not mad keen on same-sex relationships.
The Premier League were about to come down on Guehi like a ton of the proverbial until it emerged that a Muslim player for Ipswich refused to wear the armband, too. Headless chickens all round.
‘Islamophobia alert’. Dive, Dive, Dive! Anyway, they haven’t got a clue where to go from here. Does ‘homophobia’ trump ‘Islamophobia’?
Can they really discipline a black footballer for refusing to buy in to the ‘Glad To Be Gay’ agenda? And as for a Muslim, even if he does play for lowly Ipswich (or The Rainbow Tractors, as they’re apparently called these days), best not go there.
We’re talking Little Nell here. It would take a heart of stone not to laugh.
Then, yesterday, we learned that a Manchester United had had scrapped plans to wear Gay Pride warm-up jackets after a Moroccan defender refused to play ball and his team-mates did the same in solidarity.
You couldn’t make it up.
And the real scandal here is: None of the spivs who run football these days believe in any of this old pony. Remember how they ran a mile when England were threatened with sanctions at the World Cup in gay-hating, but oil-rich, Qatar if they insisted on taking the knee and wearing rainbow armbands?
Never mind ‘over ’ere on me ’ead’. More ‘over ’ere, we’re chopping your head off’.
They are only interested in money, which is why they are happy to sell out British football to Middle Eastern sports-washing billions.
The ‘rainbow laces’ rubbish is merely camouflage for their cynical, venal, money-grubbing opportunism. Look at us, we ‘care’. No, you don’t.
The Premier League is about the only organisation which still signs up to the MGBGTQWERTY+ shakedown artists Stonewall. Even the NHS has done a runner.
Most of us think Rainbow is that old children’s TV show, featuring Zippy and Bungle.
Certainly, Bungle would have made a better job of dealing with this latest own-goal than the two-bob chancers who dominate the Premier League.
Incidentally, I’ve just read a story about a ‘misgendered’ penguin. No doubt they’ll be taking the knee and having a minute’s applause for him at The Lane, too, shortly before banning chants of ‘Yid Army’ in support of Israel.
So, yes, there have been times. But as for me renewing my season tickets Somewhere Over The Rainbow!
Justin Kluivert to have 2+ shots on target tonight price boosted to 4/1, say Sky Bet
Kluivert scored a hat-trick in Bournemouth's 4-2 win over Wolves on the weekend
Click here to see ALL today's latest sports betting stories
Tottenham's inconsistent season continued over the weekend - with Ange Postecoglou's side having to settle for a draw against Fulham at home.
Spurs will be hoping they can return to the winner's circle when they take on Bournemouth in a Premier League clash at Vitality Stadium tonight.
They aren't tipped to do so however - with Tottenham 17/10 underdogs to come away with the victory according to Sky Bet.
Conversely, Bournemouth are 13/10 favourites and a draw is valued at 11/4 odds.
The Cherries looked strong last time out, putting four past Wolves en route to a 4-2 victory at Molineux Stadium.
In addition to the above market - let's take a look at the four Price Boosts on offer for this contest.
The boosts include Destiny Udogie to commit 2+ fouls at 1/1, Justin Kluivert to have 2+ shots on target at 4/1, Dejan Kulusevski to win 3+ fouls at 7/1, and James Maddison to score from outside the area at 14/1.
Udogie has committed 16 fouls in the league this season, including two in his last away league game.
Additionally, Kluivert (14) has had the most shots on target in the league for Bournemouth this season and scored a hat-trick from four shots on target against Wolves.
Sky Bet odds in Full-time Result market for Bournemouth vs Tottenham Hotspur:
Bournemouth 13/10
Tottenham Hotspur 17/10
Draw 11/4
Sky Bet Price Boosts for Bournemouth vs Tottenham Hotspur:
Destiny Udogie to commit 2+ fouls WAS 8/11 NOW 1/1
Justin Kluivert to have 2+ shots on target WAS 3/1 NOW 4/1
Dejan Kulusevski to win 3+ fouls WAS 5/1 NOW 7/1
James Maddison to score from outside the area 10/1 NOW 14/1