Tottenham fans will vehemently and passionately beg to differ, but we’re not even sure this is entirely a Spursy thing anymore. This is the Premier League 2024/25, where conventional laws of football no longer apply and precious few leads are ever safe.
Yes, there’s been some dull, processional games, mostly involving Manchester United, but there’s also been plenty of games like this one. Well…alright, maybe not all the way as silly and fun as this one. But not far off.
It started with a Tottenham blitz in a game played at incredible speed, and turned into a high-quality, compelling game with just enough bite about it to keep everyone on their toes as Chelsea fought back from two goals down to end up laughing and laughing their way away from North London with three points.
Meetings between these sides have long been a red-letter day for the neutral observer, and this occasion was just as stupid, brilliant, awful and entertaining as anybody could possibly have hoped.
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And the comedy! Oh, the comedy. One Steven Gerrard slip in a game ten years ago has been enough for Chelsea fans to fill their boots with for a decade and counting. Marc Cucurella did it twice here, handing Tottenham an attack from which they scored both times, Brennan Johnson crossing for Dominic Solanke for the first, then dispossessing Cucurella and helping work it to Dejan Kulusevski for a well-taken second.
After Jadon Sancho’s goal in reply made things interesting, Tottenham took the jester’s hat with big bells on for the second half.
Yves Bissouma went absolutely flying in on Moises Caicedo inside the box, got nowhere near the ball, and scythed his old Brighton teammate out at the ankles to give Cole Palmer the chance to convert from the spot.
Palmer set up Enzo Fernandez to continue his fine form in front of goal as Chelsea went ahead, then practically begged Pape Matar Sarr to come and foul him just inside the box late on. He was obliged, then stepped up to the spot again to put a delightful Panenka past Forster. Son Heung-min made the scoreline look more respectable than Tottenham really deserved in injury time, but there was not enough time left for them to have any realistic hope of an equaliser.
Similar stories played out across the Premier League on Saturday afternoon. Brentford Brentforded their way to a 4-2 win over Newcastle. Crystal Palace, down in 17th, force Manchester City to twice come back from behind to claim a point, which is quite something even with City in the awful form they are currently. Having already won at Anfield this season, Nottingham Forest beat Man United 3-2 at Old Trafford with just three shots on target.
On Sunday, Leicester were 2-0 down to Brighton in the 85th minute and drew 2-2. Bournemouth mimicked that to even greater effect: they were 1-0 down at Ipswich after 86 minutes, and won 2-1.
There’s really only the two poles of the Premier League, Liverpool and Southampton, who are largely free from this barmy ‘anybody can get points off anybody’ fever that has gripped the top flight this season, and even then the head-to-head encounter between the two sides was a topsy-turvy 3-2 victory for Arne Slot’s side.
But here’s the thing: none of that context does much good for Tottenham, who are pure Premier League 2024/25 refined and distilled into a single brilliant yet entirely idiotic side.
How much of this is on Ange Postecoglou, and how much of this is the kind of problem they hired him over a year ago to sort out? Their youth policy in the transfer market and their pronouncements of faith in the Australian suggest they still believe he is the man for the long term.
Yet they seem to be getting stupider every week, like a sitcom character who must continuously do dumber and dumber things every episode in the name of keeping the novelty alive.
And as for Chelsea…well, normally you’d say the title was Liverpool’s to lose. And it is. It surely is. But this season has been just wild enough to make you think anything is possible – and Enzo Maresca’s side are currently the best position to exploit any more slips.
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