The weather has been a bit frightful, but Chelsea’s winter has been quite delightful so far, with four wins on the bounce and seven unbeaten in all competitions. This time of year has proven a great hurdle for many a Chelsea manager in years past, even before Game of Thrones made us all weary of the coming of winter, but things are looking pretty good at the moment.
That can always change and change rather quickly in football, especially in a rivalry game.
It’s been a strange old season at Tottenham, who are among the highest scoring teams in the league and have one of the better defenses — in fact, their goal difference is good for fourth best — and yet they sit midtable with as many losses as wins. And with just one win in their last six in all competitions, the pressure’s starting to ratchet up on Ange Postecoglou, who took charge of his 50th Premier League match midweek.
He will want nothing more than a big win over Chelsea, so let’s not give him that reprieve.
Date / Time: Sunday, December 8, 2024, 16.30 GMT; 11:30am EST; 10pm IST
Venue: New Three Point Lane, N17
Referee: Anthony Taylor (on pitch); Jarred Gillett (VAR)
Forecast: Storm Darragh will have largely passed, but remnants of it (wind, rain) will remain
On TV: Sky Sports Main Event (UK); USA, Telemundo (USA); none (India); SuperSport Premier League, Canal+ Sport 3 (NGA); elsewhere
Streaming: Sky Go (UK); NBC Sports Live, Telemundo Deportes En Vivo (USA); Disney+ Hotstar (India); DStv Now (NGA)
Tottenham team news: Spurs may have just one win in six, but that one win was against Manchester City — that may not be saying much at the minute given City’s horrendous form, but a 4-0 win at the Etihad is a tremendous result regardless of circumstance. In fact, two of Spurs’ last three wins in all competitions have come against City. Making sense of recent defeats to Ipswich Town and AFC Bournemouth then is a tougher proposition, but fingers might be pointed at injuries as well as Postecoglou’s still-staunch and still-ridiculous refusal to ever change his approach.
That might be helped by the return of Cristian Romero from injury, who might be well advised that hair-pulling is correctly punishable with red cards these days, now that Mike Dean is no longer a danger to the VAR room. However, Ben Davies and Micky van de Ven remain out, and are joined by the likes of Rodrigo Bentancur, Wilson Odobert, and Richarlison. Goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario recently underwent ankle surgery as well.
Obviously, Spurs carry plenty of threat still, even with Son Heung-min having a subpar season. James Maddison is back to being influential, Brennan Johnson is having a career year (10 goals already in all competitions to lead the team), and ex-Chelsea Academy goal machine Dominic Solanke has led the line capably. Our good buddy Timo Werner is also still around, though with just 1 goal in 17 appearances.
View from the enemy: Cartilage Free Captain
Chelsea team news: With Liverpool’s game postponed due to weather, Chelsea could end the weekend just four points off the top and starting to separate ourselves a bit in the top-four/six race. Any title-talk may be well premature, but expectations should certainly be set for Champions League qualification as we navigate our way through the busy festive fixtures period.
Enzo Maresca made seven changes midweek, resting the likes of Nicolas Jackson, Roméo Lavia, and Levi Colwill, but Moisés Caicedo and Cole Palmer will likely be making a third start this week and that’s a scenario that we’ve generally avoided this season entirely — even if Caicedo’s energy levels may be unmatched and Palmer can single-handedly win any game.
Maresca did confirm that Robert Sánchez will be back in goal after Filip Jörgensen got his first ever Premier League start on Wednesday, and the head coach also hinted that we might be seeing Caicedo at nominal (inverting) right back more often after that experiment paid off against Aston Villa last weekend.
