Gallery: Player Ratings – Tottenham Hotspur 0-2 Chelsea

Jose Mourinho – 4

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Last week I definitely understood his decision to play a more pragmatic football against a strong team away from home. But today, at home, in a London derby, when a win was going to put Tottenham in Top 4, he put out the exact same team that got battered by Wolves which is inexcusable. Even if Tottenham didn’t lose the game because of the individual mistakes, they never looked like they could win it. The decisions to play Lucas, Dier, and Sissoko are so baffling when there are game changers like Eriksen, Ndombele, and Lo Celso on the bench. He needs to go back to the drawing board to come up with a better game plan for the upcoming fixtures or Tottenham will be in big danger in the Top 4 race.

Opinion

Tottenham failed to grab fourth place in the league with a disastrous performance at home against Chelsea, losing by two goals to nil with a brace from Willian for the visitors. Jose Mourinho set his team up exactly the same way he did against Wolves and the performance mirrored last week’s one.

From the get-go Chelsea were the better side and Spurs found it near impossible to keep hold of possession against the Blues high press. However, Frank Lampard’s side did not create any clear cut chances early on to trouble Tottenham’s back four. Mourinho’s plans were thrown out the window in the 12th minute when Willian took advantage of a serious of sloppy mistakes from Aurier to give his team the lead from short corner with a beautiful finish.

Tottenham reacted well to going behind by creating good chances for Kane and Son who couldn’t capitalize. But the game returned to the early balance shortly after with Chelsea looking like the more threating side. Just before half-time, another horrendous mistake, this time from Gazzaniga, gave Chelsea a penalty and Willian did not miss from the spot, putting the visitors two up.

Mourinho put on Eriksen for Dier in the second half to give Spurs midfield a bit more creativity and press resistance and it worked immediately, allowing Spurs to advance into attacking third easier. But this improvement was also short-lived after another individual mistake with Son getting needlessly sent off in the 62nd minute for kicking out at Rudiger. The match was pretty much decided there as Chelsea saw the game off easily with Tottenham a man down.

Adding to the disappointing performance on the pitch, racist chants were heard from the stands after Son’s red card, making things even more embarrassing for the home side. Tottenham now have an important period coming up with three winnable games in a row in the busy Christmas period, and Mourinho has big decisions to make in the absence of Son and after his midfield’s poor showings in the last two matches.