Premier League 2018/19: 3 reasons why Tottenham lost to Chelsea

Tonight’s London derby at Stamford Bridge was a scrappy game in the end, but when the final whistle blew it was Chelsea who came out on top, defeating Tottenham 2-0 thanks to a goal midway through the second half from Pedro and a comical own goal late on from Kieran Trippier.

The result leaves Spurs way off the pace at the top – they’re now 8 points behind second-placed Manchester City – while Chelsea remain in 6th, but are now only 3 points from the coveted 4th place.

For Chelsea, the game represented an excellent win to bounce back from their controversial EFL Cup Final loss to Man City. Tottenham fans are probably more worried; bitter rivals Arsenal are now only 4 points behind them – and the North London derby between the two sides goes down on Saturday, making the stakes even higher now.

Here are 3 reasons why Tottenham lost to Chelsea.

#1 Individual errors cost Spurs dearly

A comical own goal from Kieran Trippier helped to cost Spurs the match

Tonight’s game was largely scrappy from the off, and while both sides looked up for the fight, individual errors marred almost every stage of play for both sides. So it was only natural that the game was largely decided by a couple of those individual errors.

Pedro did excellently to find the space for his opening goal on 57 minutes, but realistically, he should never have been given the opportunity, as he managed to turn Toby Alderweireld – who was solid outside of that moment – far too easily. And his shot somehow went through Hugo Lloris’s legs, making it a double-whammy of errors for Spurs.

And of course, the less said about Kieran Trippier’s own goal, the better. Quite who was at fault is hard to tell; no Chelsea players were within 10 yards of the England full-back, but it looked like his gesticulating caused Lloris to dash out of his goal, and then completely miss the ball as it trickled into the net.

Chelsea’s players made plenty of errors too, but none as costly as those made by Tottenham, and that was where the game was decided, basically.

#2 Spurs lacked penetration going forward

Spurs' forward line - including Erik Lamela - offered little penetration against Chelsea's defence

One telling statistic after the game was that this was the first time under Mauricio Pochettino that Tottenham failed to register a shot on target throughout the game. That’s almost unfair as Harry Winks did hit the bar in the first half, but from a Spurs perspective, the fact that Winks’ shot from outside the box was their closest attempt is hugely disappointing.

This was a rare example of all Tottenham’s attacking talent simply having an off-night. Harry Kane was far too isolated up front – you can hardly blame him as he wasn’t really given any chances – and Christian Eriksen, Erik Lamela and Heung Min Son simply didn’t offer much penetration going forward at all.

Pochettino’s substitutions – introducing Fernando Llorente for Lamela and Lucas Moura for Son – didn’t really help matters either. For some reason it felt like every time Spurs pushed forward, they slowed the game down and seemed to want to pass the ball into the net – which made Chelsea’s defensive job far too easy. Spurs have plenty of attacking riches, but none of them looked on top form tonight.

#3 Chelsea defended brilliantly

Dogged defending from the likes of Antonio Rudiger helped Chelsea to victory

Chelsea’s first half was marred by some errors – most notably from David Luiz, whose mind appeared to be anywhere but on the game at times – but once Pedro scored 12 minutes into the first half their defending improved dramatically to the point where Tottenham were completely shut out.

Sure, Spurs’ attackers all had poor games by their lofty standards, but a lot of that was down to Chelsea’s defensive strength. Luiz looked massively improved in the second half, Antonio Rudiger was impressive throughout the game and Pedro in particular was willing to chase back in order to defend, making a tremendous tackle in the box on Christian Eriksen at one stage.

Essentially, once Chelsea’s first goal went in, they seemed happy to sit back and soak up the pressure from Tottenham – and the tactic worked thoroughly, as they shut Tottenham out and left them frustrated by the end of the game.

You have to give boss Maurizio Sarri plenty of credit for pulling this one off, as he’s been criticised previously for not really having a plan B. Here he switched his usual tactic up somewhat into a Mourinho-esque defensive shell, and it worked perfectly.