London derby
Big London derby between Chelsea and Tottenham is scheduled for Sunday 14.08.2022 at 17:30 Central European Time. If you ask me it's coming to soon, but in good time for visitors from North London. Hosts are not in the best form. They lost some friendly games in embarrassing style, lost main pole in defense Ruddier and new signing Kalidou Koulibaly isn't used to play with new teammates. They obviously lost Lukaku and Werner who went to Inter and Leipzig. They've got Sterling, but that player is just not on his prime right now and last season Tottenham substitute Tanganga literally pushed him off the pitch in week 1. There is nothing to be afraid in current Chelsea squad. Yes they won Everton 0:1 in week one, but their performance was far from scary.
Tottenham on the other side played in hot-cold style in friendlies, but won Southampton 4:1 in week 1 and showed players are fully fit and ready for everyone. Wing backs improved, Sess is scoring goals, Royal is flying and making better decisions than before, Deki Kulusevski is playing like big star. Only concern is fact that Harry Kane and Son Heung-min seem not to be in top form yet. Last one missed couple of chances against Southampton, but I have every reason to believe that mastermind on Tottenham bench Antonio Conte will wake him up before Chelsea game. Reinforcement from Everton Richarlison will be also available for this game and his dark arts could be very significant against club like Chelsea.
Statistics is dreadful, Tottenham didn't score against Chelsea in last 6 games, Chelsea have much more success since 90ies even before Roman Ambramovich era. However stats are not playing but men from flash and blood and it's good opportunity for Spurs to have good result.
This game will answer on following questions:
- Is Son Heung-min big superstar?
He has Klopp, Pep, Arteta and other in his album, but he doesn't have Tuchel in it so far. If he want to regain superstar status after that embarrassing pass to Southampton goalkeeper in second half he'll need to picture Thomas at Stamford Bridge! - Is Thiago Silva to good player for Harry Kane ? Zero goals in 6 games for club which has Kane and Son are hard to comprehend. Maybe Thiago Silva is to good defender for Harry Kane ? If he wants to prove otherwise he need to score on weekeng.
- Are Tottenham title contender ? Tottenham proved they can play against City and Liverpool. Only team they couldn't play last season was Chelsea. If they can play Chelsea they can play against anyone and are genuine title contenders this year.
I hope for good result and my prediction of 1:2 for Tottenham might be to optimistic, but it looks like we'll see long waiting Tottenham win at Stamford Bridge! COYS!