The Blues have a busy fixture ahead before the transfer window reopens in January 2016, with a key Champions League game against Porto and Premier League encounters against Tottenham, Bournemouth, Leicester City, Sunderland, Watford and Manchester United.
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Chelsea may not have returned to their usual form, but this was at least a return to Jose Mourinho’s usual pre-game machinations.
“When I watch them play it’s not a surprise for me”, said Mourinho, of Spurs’ unbeaten run.
“I am happy that a big club want our players – this is because they show they are a top player with top performances”.
That result put the team 5th outright and within two points of the precious Champions League places and they will be keen to add to these successes with another on Sunday.
And speaking to former Spurs manager and player Hoddle, Kane admitted he believes anything is possible for the squad this season – but insisted the players are only concentrating on the busy Christmas period first. We’re playing really, really good football.
“I don’t even look at the league any more because it is very, very tight”, Wenger said.
Kyle Walker, Mousa Dembele and Danny Rose return after they were rested for Thursday’s Europa League win over Qarabag, but Erik Lamela (groin), Nabil Bentaleb, Nacer Chadli and Alex Pritchard (all ankle) are set to to miss out again.
Mauricio Pochettino is finally seeing the fruits of his labour in North London.
“You want to eradicate games like that”. “The objective is gone now”.
A correct score of 2-2 is now trading at around the [15.5] mark and if we get the goals as expected, that should become a lot shorter in-play, therefore offering us a profitable cash out option.
“If there are five or six to go and we are in the race, of course we are contenders”. So they have great conditions to do the magnificent work they are doing.
Tottenham will also have to do without Dele Alli, with the impressive young midfielder suspended after picking up his fifth booking of the season in last week’s 4-1 win over West Ham.
There were signs of that even against a side as poor as Maccabi, with Chelsea’s defence often exposed at 1-0, and the forward line still not linking, even in a 4-0 win.
Tottenham’s consistency has been in stark contrast to Chelsea’s, who are looking to claim a third successive win for just the second time this season.
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“It’s been a tough trip, but we’ve handled it well”, said Dier. “The reality is that we need points”. The main aim for us this season was to try and get top four. Whether it is mischief-making or not remains to be seen – they have also been linked with Jamie Vardy, which, despite his recent goalscoring run, seems odd, although stranger things have happened – in no small part due to the form of Diego Costa.
