CHELSEA host Spurs on Sunday for a London derby that is already hugely important for both teams.
They both won their opening games, although their performances were very, very different.
Spurs were extremely comfortable in beating Southampton 4-1 while Chelsea limped through their match with Everton as they ended with a 1-0 win courtesy of a Jorginho penalty.
Chelsea have endured a difficult pre-season as, under new ownership, they have looked to rebuild their squad with a series of high-profile additions for £176m- and there will be more on the way.
Spurs, on the other hand, have had a relatively steady summer in which they have added players that bring competition and depth to the squad while also retaining their most important players as they look to push on.
Sunday’s game could hinge on three key tactical battles.
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Where does Harry Kane actually play?
Harry Kane is one of the best out-and-out goalscorers in the game.
Playing as the ‘9’ for both club and country he has led the line for years – although in recent seasons his game has started to evolve as he has dropped deeper in order to pick up possession.
Last season Kane dropped into a position more regularly associated with a ‘10’, and created many goals for the South Korean international Son Heung-Min.
Both Chelsea and Spurs are likely to match up in a 3-4-3 system.
As such one of the key factors will be how Chelsea find a way to stop Kane from finding space as he drops back into deeper areas.
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Against Everton, we saw Thiago Silva act as the deepest defender in a back three for Chelsea as Kalidou Koulibally and Cesar Azpilicueta were more aggressive in their positioning.
How though will Thomas Tuchel find a way to negate the space between the defence and midfield that Kane can drop into and occupy?
There is no easy answer to this question.
Koulibally is a very strong defensive player whose mobility and strength make him a daunting opponent for any defender.
If he is tasked with stepping towards the midfield though to cover the movement of Kane then the left side of the Chelsea defence will be exposed.
Chelsea now have two international left-backs in Ben Chilwell of England and Marc Cucurella of Spain – but asking either of those to provide the defensive cover will unbalance the entire defensive structure.
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We are also unlikely to see one of the double pivots in the midfield for Chelsea, likely to be Jorginho and N’Golo Kante, dropping back to close off the space that Kane can play in as this would leave them undermanned in the midfield areas allowing Spurs to dominate the ball in that area.
So, what is the answer?
Chelsea may look to play with a higher defensive line in order to close down the available space but in doing so they expose the lack of pace of Thiago Silva in the centre of the defence.
Is Raheem Sterling going to play as a central striker?
When Chelsea signed the English international forward Raheem Sterling from Manchester City, for a fee of £50m, there was some debate as to where he would play for Tuchel’s side.
When he initially made his breakthrough at first-team level for Liverpool, it was as a winger – but at Manchester City he spent time playing as more of a central striker in areas where his mobility and ability to play in tight spaces were extremely effective.
With Romelu Lukaku having left Chelsea and returned to Inter Milan, there was a sense that the young German international Kai Havertz would take the central striking role while Sterling would play from the left.
Yet in the first match of the season, it was Havertz who played from the left while Sterling played centrally.
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Sterling is extremely mobile but there were signs in the match at Everton that the partnership and the understanding between him and Havertz still needs some work.
In a month or two we may see the two of them switching and interchanging positions on the pitch on a regular basis and with more fluidity.
At the moment though the movement in that sense is not quite there.
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If we see Sterling playing as the central striker in this match then Spurs will be relatively comfortable allowing him to drop off the front line into space as there are less aggressive runs being made by the other forwards than we saw from the Spurs front line last week.
With Mason Mount playing against Everton as a wide attacker from the right-hand side Chelsea had another attacking player who was not playing in his best role or position.
Mount was easier to defend for the Everton defence as he made less aggressive runs to break the lines.
The battle for the midfield
The midfield will be a key battleground in this match and we expect both sides to line up in matching 3-4-3 systems with a double pivot in the midfield.
In the opening games, Spurs played with Rodrigo Bentancur and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg in this area while Chelsea had Jorginho and N’Golo Kante.
Both pairs are perhaps not the most attack-minded – they are, however, extremely functional in their approach – and one of the biggest challenges for both sides in this game will be finding creativity from these areas.
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Chelsea perhaps have the edge in terms of technical ability with the Italian international Jorginho, in particular, displaying clever passing ability with the capacity to break lines when he does actually look to pass it forwards.
The issue that Chelsea will have though is that Bentancur and Hojbjerg are extremely capable of nullifying the opposition midfield and preventing them from being able to play.
Under Antonio Conte, the Spurs midfield has emerged as an extremely industrious part of the team with the ability to drop and cover space behind and to the sides as they essentially cover for teammates who move into advanced positions.
If neither side is able to truly take control of the midfield areas in this match then the edge will go to a Spurs side who are set up to allow Kane to drop off into the midfield while also ensuring that they have runners making forward runs beyond the ball.
Who will come out on top?
Neither side will want to give up anything so early in the season so not losing will be the order of the day.
If Chelsea can effectively stop Kane linking everything together and prevent Tottenham’s exciting front three playing then they will be one step nearer taking the points.
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But, unless Tuchel can come up with a fluid way of breaking down Spurs’ now-well-drilled backline you wonder how the Blues will score themselves – after all, they hardly tore Everton apart.
All roads point to a damage-limiting draw that will no doubt raise more questions for Tuchel than for Conte.
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
