Gary Neville has suggested that he felt Chelsea’s full-backs actually looked shocked at Tottenham Hotspur’s tactics yesterday, as per his comments to Sky Sports during their live coverage of the game.
Jose Mourinho ensured that his Tottenham team kept plenty of men behind the ball against Chelsea yesterday, as they looked to keep things tight at the back and then counter.
Chelsea took a while to grow into the game, as Spurs arguably shaded the first-half.
And Neville actually thought that Chelsea’s full-backs looked shocked at the way Tottenham had set up.
“It’s like they haven’t got an idea when it goes to the right and left backs,” he said, during the contest.
“Reece James there, you see him holding his arms out, it’s like they didn’t know Tottenham were going to be compact and deep and together.”
Tottenham’s approach did seem to cause Chelsea some issues, particularly early on, as they weren’t able to show their usual attacking quality.
Pierre Emile Hojbjerg and Moussa Sissoko both dropped into defence at times, to give Tottenham effectively a six man back-line to break down.
It would be a surprise if Chelsea’s defenders weren’t actually expecting Tottenham to set-up fairly defensively, though.
Mourinho has looked to keep things tight at the back and then use the pace he has on the break in multiple matches this season, and yesterday was no different.
Tottenham ultimately could feel happy with their day’s work at full-time too, as they picked up a clean-sheet and collected a 0-0 draw which left them sitting on top of the Premier League table.
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