Saturday, at 17:30, Tottenham receives Chelsea’s Wembley visit to the derby of the 13th Premier League. Chelsea is unbeaten in Maurizio Sarri’s mandate, but a Tottenham victory would climb Pochettino’s rival from Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea is in third place in the standings (goal 27-8), while Tottenham is in fourth place (20-10 golaver) and has only one point in the back. Chelsea did not manage to cross Everton (0-0) on its own, although it dominated authoritarian hostilities and had a controversial canceled goal. Before that draw, Chelsea had managed 5 consecutive wins in all competitions. Tottenham comes after a 1-0 short at Crystal Palace and is in a series of 4 consecutive successes in all the races, receiving a goal in 5 of the last 6 games.
From 2013 until today, Chelsea only had heavy matches on Tottenham‘s field, where it won only once. Spurs has a good series of Wembley results, and Kane, Eriksen and Alli on the pitch guarantee Pochettino a good chance of winning. Chelsea has been remarkable this season with an irreproachable organization of the game, but it seems that Sarri’s attack is not quite incisive, with only Morata and Giroud as peaks.
Chelsea deserves the finals of Barkley, Pedro, Hazard or Willian, and no wonder that the Belgian is the top scorer for his team. Without dreaming yet this season, Tottenham did not give up the fight for the title and will not be happy with this one if he feels he can suffocate his opponent. But Chelsea is unbeaten in 4 of the 5 moves made this season and in 3 of the last four wins the blue band has managed to lead since the break. The truth is that both bands have favorable statistics.
What will make the difference, in the end, is the ability of each team to speculate on the weaknesses of the opponent, and Chelsea does not have many weaknesses of its kind. In 4 of the last 5 Championship matches Chelsea scored at least two goals and 8 of the 12 stages played so far by Sarri’s band ended with at least three successes on the scoreboard. We note that Tottenham has received a goal in the first 10 minutes in three of the last four games played on home ground, an aspect that Mauricio Pochettino has to adjust quickly. Only the Argentine has batch problems at Spurs, with Janssen, Dembele, Rose, Sanchez and Vertonghen injured. Kieran Trippier is uncertain, but he may be fit to play.
THE PROBABLE TEAMS
Tottenham: Lloris – Trippier, D. Sanchez, Alderweireld, Davies – Sissoko, Dier, Alli – L. Moura, Eriksen – Kane
Chelsea: Kepa – Azpilicueta, Rudiger, Luiz, Alonso – Kante, Jorginho, Kovacic – Willian, Morata, Hazard
PREDICTION: Both teams to score / YES @ 1.55
