Tactical Analysis Tottenham Hotspurs positive defensive approach against Chelsea from ymakerpi8d's blog

The 2021/22 Premier League season has started to shape up now, with the second seriously-contended London derby of the campaign concluding Matchday 5.Chelsea had only faltered once so far in a where they spent the majority of the match with a numerical disadvantage, while Tottenham Hotspur had enjoyed a perfect start in the first three weeks until Crystal Palace derailed everything.With the likes of Liverpool and the two Manchester clubs looking poised to mount serious title challenges, any other contenders would have to keep step with them.Chelseas sheer quality easily places them in that bracket, but Tottenham will undoubtedly have to prove their title credentials if any on the pitch.A direct clash against one of the top sides in a London derby was about as good an opportunity they would get for that.There was some excellent pre-match news for them as star forward Heung-min Son returned from injury, while Chelsea were mi sing first- Michael Pineda Jersey choice keeper Edouard Mendy and NGolo Kant could only make the bench.In recent history, Tottenhams approach to such big matches has been characterised by compact defensive blocks with an emphasis on counter-attacking, both under Jos Mourinho and during the interim tenure of Ryan Mason.Nuno Espirito Santo looked set to be continuing that as he found succe s in his debut match against Manchester City by containing the defending champions in a narrow 4-3-3 block and causing lots of problems in transition.Therefore, Thomas Tuchel must have been a little bit surprised when he would have seen this as Chelsea circulated po se sion around their defence for the first time.The home side pre sed Chelsea really high up the pitch and with good intensity, using their front three to take the Blues three centre-backs out of the equation, while the wide midfielders marked the double pivot and the full-backs latched onto the wing-backs. Interestingly, Harry Kane was on the left Ervin Santana Jersey while Son took up a central position, most likely because the South Korean international brought greater intensity while pre sing and could cause Kepa Arrizabalaga much greater problems while closing him down, as a back-pa s seemed to be the trigger for Spurs pre s.Sons central position might also have been part of a ploy to use his incredible speed to target Thiago Silvas relative lack of pace by playing balls in behind him, but it was most likely a combination of both.The involvement of Cristian Romero was Fernando Rodney Jersey also crucial for Spurs pre s because his front-foot defending helped prevent multiple transition attacks by Chelsea.Front-foot defending e sentially refers to the action of getting in front of ones opponent to cut out line-breaking pa ses as opposed to dropping off and facing them one-on-one.This is, of course, a high-risk manoeuvre as one mi sed interception can easily prove fatal, but Romero was faultle s in this regard on the night.Tuchels solution was to switch to a 3-5-2 towards the end of the first half by dropping Mason Mount into midfield with Jorginho at the heart of it.This matched Spurs three-man midfield numerically, preventing them from committing too many midfielders to the high pre s for fear of being sliced through with the help of Chelseas extra midfielder, and that proved to be a pivotal change.Surprisingly, even though Tottenham would have been pleased with their pre s for the first half-hour of the match and undoubtedly caused many problems in Chelseas ranks, the Blues never gave po se sion away in their defensive third at any point in the game.This brilliantly encapsulates their superb quality even when they find themselves on the ropes, they never give Jose Berrios Jersey in.In the end, Tottenham fell comfortably short to Chelsea after they conceded a set-piece goal and were victims of an unfortunate deflection.That demoralisation, coupled with the fatigue that inevitably started to set in as the match wore on really derailed all of their intent, and the visitors moved into their typical cruise control with yet another two-goal lead, once again adding a third Jake Odorizzi Jersey late on in the match.The good news for Spurs is that they will not have to face a side as good as Chelsea every week, so there certainly are positives to take from this match because they could go toe-to-toe with the Blues for a prolonged period here. That should indicate that although they most likely will not be able to compete for the title till the end of the season, they should be able to establish themselves as the best of the rest for now.The last few years have been kind to the top teams in England that have instilled such high pre sing as one of the fundamentals of their playing style most notably Manchester City and Liverpool but Spurs have not been a part of that group.Whether this match marks the start of a fresh, positive defensive approach for Tottenham or was just a one-off, only time can tell.Read: .