The half-time whistle has blown at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium as Spurs take on Chelsea in the London derby, and the player ratings are in.
Let’s take a look at how the Tottenham players got on in the first 45.
Tottenham first-half player ratings vs Chelsea
Guglielmo Vicario – Went down with an injury after missing the game against Newcastle with a knock, but managed to play on. Made two very good saves to keep Tottenham in the game. 7.5.
Pedro Porro – Lucky not to cost Tottenham a goal when his clearance was closed down to hand Joao Pedro a chance on goal. Some nice deliveries from set-pieces, but he lacked his normal quality in the build-up. 4.
Kevin Danso – Better off the ball than on it. Danso will head balls away from the box all day long, but he lacks Cristian Romero’s talents in the build-up. Struggled with the Chelsea press in the first half. 5.
Micky Van de Ven – Gave the ball away on the edge of his own box to hand Chelsea an easy lead after 34 minutes. A moment of madness from Van de Ven, who was the hero against Everton. Really struggled to pass his way out from the back in the first half too. 4.
Djed Spence – The one defender who tried, and succeeded at times, to beat the press and drag Tottenham up the pitch. Unfortunately, his inverted style does not suit an inverted left-midfielder like Bergvall or Simons. 6.
Joao Palhinha – Got through his fair share of defensive work. Once again seems strange to see him push up between the signs while Bentancur drops between the centre-backs to dictate play. Makes it very hard for Spurs to create a path from defence to attack. 6.
Rodrigo Bentancur – Once again, the double pivot looks problematic for Tottenham. On the one hand, Bentancur and Palhinha don’t look solid as a duo, while also not giving anything extra in attack. Bentancur picked up a late booking and almost lost his cool going forehead-to-forehead with multiple Chelsea players. 4.
Mohammed Kudus – Tottenham’s bright spark as usual, but his teammates really struggled to find him in the final third. Chelsea worked out early that doubling up on Kudus largely nullified Spurs’ attacks. That being said, he did have Spurs’ only shot on target with a late curling effort. 6.
Pape Sarr – Looked far from the high-pressing, all-action player we saw at the start of the season. The first half almost completely passed Sarr by as Chelsea dominated in midfield. 4.
Lucas Bergvall – Forced off with a concussion after just a matter of minutes. N/A.
Randal Kolo Muani – Full of beans up front, but he was often Tottenham’s lone presser. Barely had any of the ball and certainly wasn’t given any chances to put away. 5.
Substitutes:
Xavi Simons – Came on to replace Bergvall. All the noise before the game was about Xavi dropping to the bench, but he was on the pitch within 7 minutes. Unfortunately, he struggled both on and off the ball. 4.