Former Spurs midfielder Jamie Redknapp believes that this is the perfect time for Tottenham to play Chelsea, who kick off at 4pm today in Tottenham’s first Premier League fixture at Wembley stadium.
Pundit and former Spur Jamie Redknapp has tipped Spurs to beat Chelsea in today’s huge Premier League clash at the national stadium.
The two sides experienced two completely different opening day matches, with Spurs running out cool 2-0 winners over 10-man Newcastle, whereas 9-man Chelsea were overrun by Burnley at the Bridge, losing 3-2.
Redknapp believes that the injuries and suspensions currently hampering the squad make Chelsea uncharacteristically vulnerable to a successive defeat today, with Spurs eager to get one over their hurting rivals.
“Chelsea are wounded, you couldn’t ask for a better time to play them,” he said in an interview with SkySports. “You just feel a few of them are getting their parachutes out and making excuses.”
“You’re hearing things about Conte, ‘He’s not a great man-manager.’ He was phenomenal last season.”
“All of a sudden there’s a lot coming out of Chelsea that wasn’t there last year so Tottenham need to make it count and put the Wembley talk to bed.”
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The national stadium has been no friend to Tottenham over recent years, with Tottenham only winning on 2 different occasions since the stadium’s completion in 2007.
Chelsea of all teams have beaten Tottenham the most at Wembley, having beaten Spurs 3 times in a row, scoring 11 goals and conceding just 3 in doing so, since Tottenham defeated the Blues in the 2008 League Cup final.
Clearly concerned about Tottenham’s record at the 90,000 capacity stadium, Redknapp suggested that Spurs have to win against Chelsea to end talk of the ‘Wembley factor’.
“This game, without overstating it, is almost their season,” He added. “If they can get a result everyone then stops talking about their record at Wembley.”
“It’s so important they start well because if they lose on Sunday the talk will linger for another couple of weeks but the fact they didn’t play well in Europe there last season shouldn’t concern them.”
The former Spurs and Liverpool player then went on to discuss the ‘negativity’ hanging around Chelsea at the moment, as well as a poor transfer window for the Blues.
Conte decided to let go of star midfielder Nemanja Matic, who joined Premier League and potential title rivals Manchester United, while Diego Costa is currently seemingly on strike in Brazil, pushing for a move to Atheltico Madrid.
While Chelsea have missed out on a number of transfer targets, they have done some business, but Redknapp isn’t convinced they’ve done enough to plug the gaps.
“There’s a lot of negative energy around Chelsea,” He said. “I’ve been so surprised by how they have managed this pre-season.”
“When you don’t play in Europe you can afford to have a thin squad. But then you go into the Champions League, sell one of your best players in Matic and you have a problem with Costa, your main striker.”
“They have weakened themselves when they should have been kicking on, it’s incredible, but this start had been coming after their preparations.”
“Stamford Bridge should have been buzzing on Saturday but instead they were getting booed at half-time. It’s incredible how that can turn around so quickly but it seems to happen at Chelsea.”
“As soon as the manager gets any power, that’s when it seems they chop him down. At the moment it looks like the club is almost undermining Conte.”
Moving on to Spurs, Redknapp suggested that Tottenham’s previous record at Wembley counts for little ahead of a full season at the stadium, and has even gone as far as to say that he expects Spurs to beat Chelsea in today’s Premier League game.
“I fancy Spurs and I’ll be surprised if they don’t win this game,” he predicted.
“They beat Chelsea last year with two Dele Alli headers and I look at the midfield area and wonder how Chelsea can compete.”
“Matic and N’Golo Kante was the perfect balance but that’s gone and Tiemoue Bakayoko has had injury problems for a while now, going back to his time at Monaco.”
“Christian Eriksen caused them a lot of problems at White Hart Lane and Spurs as a team have caused Chelsea more problems than anyone else over the last 12 months.”
“The likes of Alli should be looking at this as a brilliant experience, not just for Tottenham but for England too. He’s such a special talent and in Harry Kane they have the best centre-forward in the country.”
“With their XI they should not fear anybody, whether it’s at Wembley or not. There’s a vulnerability about Chelsea and Arsenal and Spurs should be thinking, ‘We can win the league this year’.”
Do you agree with what Redknapp’s had to say? Or has he underestimated Chelsea?
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