With a new Chelsea formation, the West Londoners beat Tottenham Hotspur 4-3 in a pulsating Premier League encounter last Sunday, December 8, to move into the second position in the league table with 31 points from 15 matches. Meanwhile, the Spurs suffered their seventh league defeat to drop down to the bottom half of the table.
Cole Palmer scored a brace for Chelsea, converting a couple of penalties, with Jadon Sancho and Enzo Fernandez also scoring for them. For Tottenham, Dominic Solanke and Dejan Kulusevksi scored early to give them a 2-0 lead, while Son Heung-min scored in the dying minutes of the match to reduce the margin.
With things looking good in their part of London, will a new Chelsea formation continue to give results?
The new Chelsea formation worked reasonably well
It was a bit risky to play with Marc Cucurella in a back-three, as the Spanish fullback is not the best defender out there. He made a couple of costly errors to concede possession and allow Tottenham score a couple of goals in the first half.
However, the double-pivot of Moises Caicedo and Roméo Lavia protected the defence well thereafter, allowing Palmer and Fernandez to play in advanced roles. Palmer and Fernandez supplied enough balls to the front-three of Pedro Neto, Nicolas Jackson and Jadon Sancho, with Palmer being very mobile in particular.
Playing that extra man in midfield allowed Enzo Maresca’s side to have the numerical supremacy in the middle of the pitch. As already mentioned, it was somewhat risky against the front-three of Tottenham to play with a back-three consisting of a full-back, but the defensive midfielders of the Royal Blues were equal to the task.
With both Neto and Sancho regularly cutting inside from the flanks and the former also scoring a wonderful goal with a shot from outside the penalty box, the Blues made a brilliant comeback from a 0-2 deficit to earn all three points. Tottenham suffered a setback as defender Christian Romero had to leave the pitch in the first half. In the end, their defence was not strong enough to deal with Chelsea’s considerable attacking might.
Palmer has now scored 11 goals in 17 matches already this season. That is quite a wonderful scoring record that should keep his manager happy. With Arsenal drawing at Fulham, Enzo Maresca’s Royal Blues overtook the Gunners with the help of their victory on Sunday against the Spurs.
Chelsea have a reasonably easy three matches ahead
The Royal Blues will play against Brentford, Everton and Fulham in their next three Premier League matches, with each of those matches taking place this month itself. They are a reasonably easy set of matches, winning which should give the Royal Blues a reasonable chance to keep the pressure on Liverpool.
The Reds are still in a comfortable position with a four-point lead over Chelsea with a match in hand, but should not take their lead for granted by any means. Maresca’s men will have their eyes on the title firmly and have already shown that they deserve to be in contention for the title. It remains to be seen whether the Royal Blues are able to continue their fantastic run in their upcoming matches.