Thomas Tuchel has continued his impressive start as Chelsea’s manager with a 1-0 win at Tottenham.
It was the German’s first London Derby and he came out victorious. However, Tottenham’s season continue to falter as they lose their third successive match in the English Premier League (EPL) for the first time since April 2012 when Harry Redknapp was manager. The absence of their key man, Harry Kane, who is put on injury, has taken a heavy toll on them.
Jorginho’s first-half penalty was enough to settle the London derby and inflict a defeat on Spurs (Tottenham).
Thomas Tuchel has now taken 7 points from the available 9 points on his opening three fixtures, playing a goalless draw against Wolves and a 2-0 win over Burnley.
Chelsea set up in the same formation as they did against Burnley on Sunday, and started well, completely dominating proceedings.
Spurs were happy to sit back to defend and be on the lookout for counters, with Son Heung-min leading the attack in the absence of Harry Kane.
Chelsea’s pressure on the night eventually paid off when Dier had a silly moment; he went to the ground and brought Werner down in a tangle of legs for a loose ball. Jorginho stepped up and hit a powerful penalty into Hugo Iloris’s net.
Chelsea’s veteran defender, Thiago Silva went down with a right leg injury when attempting to intercept a ball, he was taken off just past the half-hour mark.
With that, Spurs came out of the break with much more intent, pressing and attacking effort.
Chelsea played with fire a few times at the back, and wasted multiple excellent chances to extend their lead, but they fortunately managed to keep another clean sheet and collect the three points.
Tottenham boss, Jose Mourinho speaking to BT Sport after the match said:
It was a bit of a struggle but how many chances (did Chelsea have)? The Penalty? We didn’t have
the ball, correct. We didn’t create in the first half, correct.But the struggle is the penalty, in the end it is penalty that decides the game, a couple of chances they had, a couple of chances we had. They score a penalty that is not a penalty if you say is a dangerous situation, one on one, almost scoring? It is a penalty that is difficult to accept, so to lose the game to a penalty like this is a bit painful.
He added;
In the second half we were different, the spirit was different, the confidence too. At the end the feeling that I have is that the team stuck together until the end, fought until the end… and to finish the game with this positive spirit helps.
Chelsea manager, Thomas Tuchel was pleased with a huge derby win early in his Chelsea reign.
He spoke to the media after the match, saying,
I’d like a bit more killer instinct, a bit more aggressive in the box towards the goals, a more killer instinct would have been nice because we could have decided the game in the first half. During the whole match there were chances where we lacked a bit of determination in the box- but it is best that we have stuff to improve and still win.
Every experience we make is a step forward if we are open to learn from it and there were moments, maybe the whole of the first half where we completely controlled the game.
Chelsea’s attacker Mason Mount was named man of the match.
