Wed 04 August 2021, 23:04
Tottenham HotspurCharacter, determination, belief – our 2-2 draw at Chelsea in The Mind Series at Stamford Bridge ticked a lot of boxes for Head Coach Nuno Espirito Santo.
However, the Head Coach conceded there were a few negatives to look at as well as we came from 2-0 down to share the spoils in front of over 20,000 fans in SW6.
There can be no denying that the home side impressed in the first half and took the lead through Hakim Ziyech on 16 minutes. We’d just created our best chances when Ziyech struck again for 2-0 four minutes into the second half.
But we stuck in there – Pierluigi Gollini making some decent saves on his Spurs debut – and when Lucas Moura pulled it back to 2-1 on 56 minutes, you sensed that determination in the players to complete the turnaround.
The equaliser arrived from Steven Bergwijn on 70 minutes – Lucas involved again – and we were the team pushing for the winner as the full-time whistle blew.
What did Nuno make of the comeback? “It shows character, it shows determination, it shows belief and hard work,” he said. “The boys really worked hard. Many of them made 90 minutes and at this moment in pre-season, that’s good. That’s what we want to build, to prepare the boys for what’s coming. It was a tough test and a good test for us.”
Seven players put in a full shift in what was our fourth match this pre-season. “I was pleased by a lot of things, many things I’m also not so happy about, but mainly the fact that many of the players got to 90 minutes, that shows how well they are preparing themselves and that’s important,” added Nuno.
“It was a good test, a lot of positives, a lot of negatives, a lot of things to analyse. This is what it’s all about.
“In the end we had a couple of chances, maybe we shouldn’t go to the middle, maybe we should go to the wide areas, those are the details we are going to try to look at and try to find better solutions.”
Next up, our second match in The Mind Series – Arsenal at home on Sunday (2pm), part of a double-header with Tottenham Hotspur Women also taking on the Gunners (4.45pm).
