At this time of the season, the championship is a plot that more people pay attention to, but for those teams that have no championship to compete for, it is also a very important thing to rush out of a good result at the end of the season.
After all, in the impatient world of football, coaches need to prove with every game that they can continue to be trusted by the club next season, especially for Mauricio Pochettino.
The game against Tottenham is Chelsea's last BIG6 civil game of the season, and the end of the season may be a foregone conclusion, but if Pochettino can get a win at his former club, he can add more leverage to his role.
So, Pochettino prepared a little surprise for his old club.
In the fourth minute, Chelsea broke through the left flank on the counter-attack and created a threatening attack:
In fact, taking advantage of the space left by Tottenham full-backs is already standard for many teams against Tottenham, but the interesting thing about Chelsea's attack was before the ball was converted.
By placing the winger on Caicedo's flank, and thus arching the pressing Conor Gallagher, Chelsea were a pretty standard Christmas tree at this time:
Of course, positioning often changes depending on the position of the ball, so it doesn't make much sense to dwell on these details, but Chelsea's intentions through the change of positioning are quite clear:
The limiting thing is your performance in the midfield area.
In pre-season, we pointed out Tottenham's approach in attack, by putting two full-backs on the side of the single midfield, Tottenham established a numerical advantage in the midfield area, and then gradually built forward, and the strong full-backs were then involved in the attack on the ribs, which is the basic style of play of Tottenham.
So since you're using full-backs to build your advantage, I'm going to use wingers to hedge your advantage.
Of course, with specific restrictions on specific tactics for specific opponents, this kind of defensive tactics that have been practiced in a short period of time will certainly not be perfect enough, as in the 6th minute of Tottenham's attack:
It was clear that Mudryk and Caicedo were not well distanced, leaving room for Tottenham to move laterally and allow the opposition to play an attack.
So at this time, some people will say, if this goal is scored, this article will have to be rewritten blablablabla, but what we want to say is that the impromptu targeted tactics themselves cannot be done perfectly, just like Mourinho uses man-to-man marking to limit the opponent's core in strong dialogue, sometimes it always works, and sometimes the opponent will get rid of it, so as to play one or two attacks.
Because it doesn't make sense to deduce a targeted defensive tactic because of these two attacks, then you are advocating a mutual stab. Defence can never be extreme, just like no matter how strong a team is, it is impossible for the opponent to be completely unable to attack and shoot, but on this basis, trying to reduce the opponent's offensive efficiency is itself a success at the defensive level.
It was on this off-the-ball basis that Chelsea blocked Tottenham's push and attacking attempts in the first half:
However, Pochettino's surprise to his former club is not over.
With the ball on the ball, Chelsea today also played at full-back, with Marc Cucurella moving from left-back to midfield to build a midfield advantage in a similar way, helping the team fend off and defuse Tottenham's high pressing:
The advantage thus formed is that Tottenham, who has played for a season, cannot restrain itself. In the 14th minute of the game, Chelsea's attack, Marc Cucurella had been holding back Sarr's attention in the middle of the midfield, and after the ball shifted to the other side, Sarr needed to turn to mark Gallagher, but no one took over the responsibility of marking Cucurella, so the left rib was penetrated:
The game was only played at this time, and the decision was already made.
Against Tottenham, Pochettino can use targeted set-ups to allow Chelsea to continue to build an advantage on both off the ball and on the ball, but in the face of Chelsea's changes, Tottenham have no way to adapt and take advantage of Chelsea's problems that will also arise in theory.
The reason is simple, the melon team has never played improvised, but by precision design.
When everything is going well, the reason why the game is good is because of this.
Where the players run, where to pick up, where to go out, this kind of tacit understanding of the plan is formed by a small group of players on the training ground after a long time of running-in and drills, if the strength of the opponent can't keep up, if the key nodes can't be limited, then the melon team will play very fast through the tacit understanding of this plan, because these things have become muscle memory.
Because of this, we hate the form fluctuations of this small group of players for a variety of reasons, including the intensity of fixtures, off-field misconduct, and of course injuries in training and games, but paradoxically, you can never completely control the fluctuations in form for these reasons.
As a result, a change in a node for various reasons will affect the overall efficiency, and in this game, the change in this node is Emerson who played at left-back today.
In the 10th minute of the game, Tottenham actually played a good rib attack and played as usual, but this attack, Emerson could not get up and cross in the fleeting space, and could only seek to create a foul on the opponent:
Of course, this intention was not accepted by the referee on the road, but with the main left-back Udogie, he did not need to create a foul because he could directly connect crosses with his left foot, but Emerson could not because his main foot was right-footed.
Yes, it was such a small change that directly led to the fact that this time, the already formed rib attack was interrupted by the opponent, and the efficiency was reduced.
If you don't have a left-back like Udogie and Ben Davies available today, it's okay to just let Emerson play a backfoot full-back on this side to reduce the burden on the centre-back, and then switch to someone else to go up to the ribs to participate in the attack.
Mauricio Pochettino can improvise a Christmas tree position and full-back adduction, and Tottenham certainly have that time.
However, it is difficult for Postecoglou to do so. Even if the left-back can only play with the right-footed Emerson today, he must try his best to improve and try to make up for the lack of the system, but football is not a thing to strive for, so this is called putting the cart before the horse.
Because to win a football game, sometimes you don't have to play very well, you just have to play bad enough.
So in the games that followed, Chelsea continued to exploit the gaps behind Tottenham's two full-backs:
If Emerson had stayed at the back today because of his backfoot, would the quality of the defence have increased, and would the improved quality of the defence have given Tottenham more room to speed up the front?
This series of questions, Gua will not think like this, so in the 23rd minute, Emerson sent a foul at the back:
From a free-kick, Marc Cucurella blocked Trevoh Chalobah Jr., who headed home:
That's how Chelsea took the lead.
So again, don't think that Guardiola's thinking and tactics are clever just because of a guardiola, just like the full-back adduction thing looks subtle, Pochettino's Chelsea can restrain Tottenham on the pitch in less than a week, but the latter has been playing like this for almost a year, so what?
The same goes for Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool, who only started to let Trent Alexander-Arnold intake this time last year, and this year they have been battling Manchester City and Arsenal for almost a season for top spot.
So what?
With the score ahead, Chelsea can play calmly at home.
Coming back in the second half, Postecoglou's Tottenham naturally had no countermeasures but to make the players run more and faster, and then use this to regain the advantage and create pressure:
Jackson was under more pressure as a result:
You can't say it didn't work, as the pressing and attacking in the second half showed, but the more manpower and energy you put into it, the more empty you are at the back and the more pressure you put on the centre-backs:
And the more pressure you put up front, the more space Chelsea have to put in to fill the space, and the less space you have to exploit.
So at this time, Postecoglou is going to play Maddison again, and Son Heung-min is going to play center again, and your attacking ability will be discounted again.
Because Madison does make better use of space:
But you can't carve out space:
So in the 71st minute, Cucurella, who was adducted in the middle, made a free kick:
Chelsea scored again:
And so the game was won.
You say how well Chelsea played in this game, but in fact, it is not true, there is a natural weakness of Badiashile in the back line, and there are actually a lot of negligence in the tactical execution on the periphery, but in a single game like this, enough to disrupt Tottenham's tactical plan, in fact, it is enough to win.
If Pochettino doesn't play a little bit with and without the ball, and plays according to the general pattern before, then in this game, the midfield area will definitely fall into the hands of Tottenham, and there will be a risk of disjointed, after all, Gallagher played in the back today, and in normal times he will play in the front half to one person to defend, but emphasizing the tight positioning of Mudryk and Madueke, this problem is enough to solve.
With this game played, Chelsea's BIG6 civil war this year is over. In 10 games, Chelsea have played a record of 2 wins, 4 draws and 4 defeats, which is not very good, but considering the quality of Chelsea's personnel and ability to seize opportunities this year, it is actually not particularly bad, especially in the consecutive draws against Manchester City, Arsenal and Liverpool at the beginning of the season, which is actually enough to show Pochettino's skill, and of course this game.
Therefore, Pochettino, a relatively comprehensive coach, is fully worthy of more trust from Chelsea, but the club cannot let the coach fight alone, and Chelsea's own business philosophy and recruitment ideas must be corrected as soon as possible, rather than dragging the team back.
As for Postecoglou, Tottenham will have to fend for themselves. With this season like this, it is clear that Tottenham will continue to spend money to build the team, but even if they do, it will be difficult to catch up with Manchester City and Arsenal.
What's more, this game is like this, Postecoglou may have to move out of the middle combination of Son Heung-min + Maddison in the next game.