So has Mauricio Pochettino devised the plan to beat Chelsea or will this 2-0 defeat at Tottenham prove to be nothing more than a bump in the road for Antonio Conte’s Premier League leader?
Whatever the answer, Chelsea and Conte might well be kicking themselves for failing to spot the trap that Pochettino was laying for his team at White Hart Lane.
Three days prior to this game, Pochettino sent his team to Watford and laid them out in the same 3-5-2 formation that would go on to negate the game plan that has served Conte and Chelsea so well since they crashed to a 3-0 defeat at Arsenal back in September.
After that game, Conte chose to rip it up and start again at Stamford Bridge. His move to the three-at-the-back system that brought so much success to his Juventus team resulted in Chelsea going on a 13-match winning run that ensured that they remain five points clear at the top of the table after this defeat against Spurs.
Pochettino’s team matched Chelsea and then bettered them, in every department, so they have now shown the formula for beating the leaders. Whether others can do the same remains to be seen, because Pochettino has some pretty useful players at his disposal, but the blueprint has been laid, all the same.
“Whatever system you play, you have weaknesses,” insisted Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, the former Chelsea forward, in his role as a match summariser. “And Tottenham found them tonight.”
Those weaknesses were all over the pitch, so perhaps it was just an off night for Chelsea.
Conte’s back three was not as convincing as usual, but much of the credit for that goes to the high-energy approach of Spurs, with Harry Kane and Dele Alli chasing down the Chelsea defenders and Christian Eriksen running at them from deep.
In midfield, Mousa Dembele’s energy, tenacity and forward running overcome Nemanja Matic and N’Golo Kante, with Victor Wanyama providing a resolute shield in front of the Spurs back three, which kept a prowling Diego Costa quiet.
Todd
Meanwhile, in Terps related news, the Maryland women’s basketball team pounded a really bad group of Cornhuskers 93-49 last night in Lincoln.
Shatori Walker-Kimbrough led Maryland with 19 points and Brionna Jones picked up her ninth (maybe eighth) double double of the season with 13 points and 11 rebounds. The 13 points give her exactly 1,500 for her career (14th all-time) and she’s just 20 rebounds shy of 1,000 putting her at #5 in that category. Walker-Kimbrough is currently 7th on the all-time scoring list and needs 127 points to pass Shay Doron who’s sixth.
Brenda played everyone except Jenna Staiti at least 10 minutes last night (Staiti played 5) and got to rest Destiny Slocum who only played 25 minutes. I think this will do the freshman some good. She’s been in a bit of a shooting slump since her breakout game against UConn. The real positive is her 7 assists to one turnover.
Terps will host Northwestern Saturday at 2 pm.
· 11/12/2019