Spurs v Chelsea - history, stats and facts

Chelsea are the visitors to N17 this evening in the Premier League (8pm kick-off).

Ahead of the meeting at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, we take a look at the history of the fixture, some of its recent key moments, the statistics behind both sides’ seasons so far, as well as the pre-match view from our opposition.

The history

Our home record over Chelsea across the last few seasons has been rather strong. Since January, 2015, we have hosted the Blues eight times and in five of those meetings, we have come out on top. And that includes the most recent such encounter, coming in September, 2020.

Taking on the Blues at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in the fourth round of the Carabao Cup, we had to show our fight and resolve to find our way through to the next stage of the competition. A strong start from visitors saw them take the lead via a Timo Werner strike on 19 minutes, but we responded well to the deficit, especially in the second period as we took the game to Chelsea. With just seven minutes remaining, the impressive Erik Lamela eventually found our equaliser as he fired in at the far post to take the game to a penalty shootout. Both sides converted each of their first four penalties - Eric Dier, Lamela, Pierre-Emile Højbjerg and Lucas Moura on target for us – Harry Kane then gave us the advantage by dispatching our fifth before Mason Mount fired the Blues’ final penalty wide, a miss which saw us through to the next round and gave us our first victory over the West London outfit for almost two years.

We then faced Chelsea in a Premier League clash at Stamford Bridge back in November. In what was a cagey affair, we came away from west London with a point after battling out a 0-0 draw – it was only the third time in seven attempts that we had taken at least a point from a Premier League meeting at the Bridge while, at the time, that point was also enough to send us back to the top of the league table.

In both of those games, the Blues were under the stewardship of Frank Lampard but two weeks ago, there was a change of direction at the Bridge as Lampard was replaced by Thomas Tuchel. In becoming Chelsea’s Head Coach, Tuchel became just the sixth German national to take charge of a Premier League side – all six of those appointments have come in the last seven years. So far, we have faced a team managed by a German coach in the competition on 19 occasions with a record of seven wins, five draws and seven defeats – the losses all coming at the hands of Jurgen Klopp and his Liverpool side.

We have, however, faced Tuchel twice before in the Europa League as in March, 2016, his Borussia Dortmund side defeated us across two legs in the round of 16 (5-1 on aggregate).

Having earned a point from our Premier League meeting at Stamford Bridge in November, we will be looking to avoid defeat against the Blues in a league season for the first time since 2015/16 – we drew 0-0 at the Lane and then 2-2 at Stamford Bridge that term. We could also make history this season against the west London side as, with our Carabao Cup fourth round victory included, we could go three games unbeaten against Chelsea in a single campaign – a feat we have never managed before.

Last five meetings

29 November, 2020 – Chelsea 0-0 Spurs – Premier League
29 September, 2020 – Spurs 1-1 Chelsea (5-4 on penalties) – Carabao Cup fourth round
22 February, 2020 – Chelsea 2-1 Spurs – Premier League
22 December, 2019 - Spurs 0-2 Chelsea - Premier League
27 February, 2019 – Chelsea 2-0 Spurs – Premier League

‘We have to turn things’

This season, we remain unbeaten in London derbies and we are the only side in the Premier League yet to taste defeat in such games. Yet, out of those five capital clashes, we have won just once, drawing the other four.

We head into tonight’s clash with Chelsea on the back of two consecutive league defeats (Liverpool 3-1 and Brighton 1-0). We have not lost three games on the bounce in the top flight since November, 2012. With that 3-1 loss to Liverpool coming in our last outing at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, we’ll also be looking to avoid back-to-back defeats on our own turf – something we have managed to avoid so far at our current home. Jose Mourinho, meanwhile, has never lost back-to-back home games in the Premier League.

Reflecting on Sunday’s defeat to Brighton as he looked ahead to taking on Chelsea, our Head Coach explained that a bit of soul searching as well as togetherness will be needed to turn around our recent form.

“We work hard and to work hard is also to speak, is also to have dialogue, to debate and analyse,” Jose explained. “It is also to sometimes put the finger in the scar, but it is also other times to be sweet, to massage egos a little bit. It is to be calm, to be united and then it is to work on the pitch… to prepare ourselves for the next game because we now have two home matches in three days, and we have to turn things."

Chelsea come into this clash unbeaten since Tuchel was appointed as their new Head Coach. A 0-0 draw with Wolves in his maiden outing a week ago on Wednesday was followed by a 2-0 win over Burnley on Sunday to mark a solid start to life in England for Tuchel. He is the first Blues boss since Rafael Benitez in 2012 to record clean sheets in both of his opening two games. The last Chelsea manager to record consecutive shutouts in each of their first three games was Jose Mourinho in August, 2004.

Meanwhile, only two of the west London side’s 17 Premier League managers so far have lost their first outing in a London derby. In March, 2009, Guus Hiddink was defeated by us at the Lane while our former manager Andre Villas-Boas lost his first capital clash as Blues boss in October, 2011, with QPR defeating his Chelsea side at Loftus Road.

Currently, they are on a run of four defeats in their last five league games away from Stamford Bridge but Tuchel, unbeaten so far since he arrived in west London, admits he is looking forward to his first away fixture in charge of the Blues and the trip to Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

“I am very happy to compete with a strong team against his side. I am very happy to arrive with our quality, with our mentality and with the atmosphere we have right now. That’s the most important thing,” the new Chelsea Head Coach explained.

“Tottenham are very competitive, and very strong. It will be a challenge. Is it a clash of cultures? I don’t know. Jose is a winner and I want to implement the same in my team. We are at the highest level to win games and we will try everything to beat them in their stadium.”