Chelsea vs Tottenham preview: Mutiny at Chelsea takes pressure off Spurs
Maurizio Sarri will barely have had time to digest the remarkable scenes at Wembley on Sunday before having to turn his focus to the reception of Tottenham on Wednesday night. All eyes will be on the Italian at Stamford Bridge and, more pertinently, his team selection.
Sarri has confirmed he is contemplating dropping Kepa after the Spaniard astonishingly refused to be substituted in second half extra-time of Chelsea’s Carabao Cup defeat to Manchester City. Sarri was ready to replace the 24-year-old with back-up goalkeeper Willy Caballero and started to storm down the tunnel once it became clear Kepa would not leave the field. The Spanish goalkeeper got his way before Chelsea lost the subsequent penalty shoot-out.
Kepa’s staggering behaviour tainted what was actually an impressive Chelsea performance. It was only a few weeks before that Chelsea were thrashed 6-0 by City and on Sunday they gave as good as they got and were arguably the team on top before Kepa engaged in a blazing row with Sarri.
Sarri has been under immense pressure at Chelsea in recent weeks and Kepa’s decision to disobey his head coach has only furthered suspicions the 60-year-old will not be at the club for the rest of the season.
Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino will be particularly pleased that the build-up to Wednesday’s match has barely mentioned his team. He watched his side miss the chance to close the gap on first place in the Premier League to three points after losing 2-1 away to Burnley on Saturday.
Full match preview, including team news and predicted scoreline
Pochettino lost his cool at the end and launched a tirade of abuse towards referee Mike Dean after the match. It wasn’t a good look for Pochettino but has largely blown over due to the mayhem at Chelsea. The Argentine must now attempt to become the first Tottenham manager since Bill Nicholson between 1961 and 1963 to win successive league matches away to Chelsea.
Tottenham’s 3-1 win away to Chelsea last season was their first ever Premier League victory at Stamford Bridge, though they will be missing the main orchestrator of that triumph on this occasion. Dele Alli netted twice in the win but is still on the road to recovery having been sidelined for over a month.
Ironically, Caballero has only made three Premier League starts for Chelsea and one of those was in the 3-1 defeat to Tottenham at the Bridge last season, where he deputised for an injured Thibaut Courtois. He could make his fourth on Wednesday.
