One of the main concerns for Jose Mourinho will be the state of his defence as after being so good past year, only five other teams have conceded more goals to date.
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But they have time to recover and come back still this season. “They have good conditions and no pressure”, he said, “to do magnificent work”.
Spurs are closing in on a top-four place after a run of 12 unbeaten league match, while Chelsea have won just four games and occupy 15th place.
But defender Vertonghen, who played 90 minutes against West Ham last Sunday and in their Europa League win over Qarabag on Thursday night, insists there will be no excuses.
While the Chelsea manager is sometimes reluctant to talk about opponents before a game, he was happy to discuss Spurs yesterday, detailing why he thinks they are a genuine threat and why everything is set up for them to be one. “I will try and do the best job I can and get the best results I can with the players we have”. “Good stability, playing well, a very, very good team”.
“The club is powerful to decide, “We don’t sell, we don’t sell, we don’t sell”, and to decide, “We can invest and we can bring in this one or that one”. We have great facilities, so need to use them. “If they tell players or managers that they are fighting for the title I will not laugh”.
“He was very good with me when I was at Espanyol and he was at Real Madrid”.
The Lilywhites supporters will still have their 5-3 victory in the corresponding fixture past year fresh in their minds, but the assumption that Mauricio Pochettino’s men will automatically replicate it this weekend would be foolish.
You could go into every match after that knowing you can lose.
On the hour mark, Son unleashed a cracker from the edge of the box which clattered off the crossbar and 10 minutes later Alli’s far-post volley came back off the foot of the post.
“When you play Saturday and then you play Tuesday, you are immediately in accumulation, you are already in overload”, Mourinho added.
“I have complete trust in Gary Cahill and Kurt Zouma, which is why in an important match for us [in Israel] I left Kurt out after the good performances he is having to show Gary that confidence”.
Their boss Gurban Gurbanov said: “Of course we opportunities to score”. “He’s not reading the game properly”, Mourinho said. So if that wasn’t a problem for Chelsea, why is it a problem now for Tottenham?
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The effects of making a long journey to Azerbaijan have caused concern for Pochettino, who claims it is unfair Chelsea could take advantage of their extra two days of rest.
