Tottenham Hotspur were perhaps looking good for a dominant victory over Chelsea before Jadon Sancho struck to bring the game back to 2-1 shortly after Cristian Romero’s injury.
Both felt like a big turning points in the game, Tottenham’s defensive insecurities ensued and Chelsea and Sancho took full advantage.
Of course, from the perspective of the Spurs fans watching on in N17, the two penalties conceded for Cole Palmer to tuck home were probably the biggest frustration.
Neither Yves Bissouma or Pape Matar Sarr showed any composure when recklessly bringing down their man.
And in truth, had Spurs not let Palmer strike twice from 12-yards, they may have still won the game.
Without penalties:
Tottenham (2.91) 3-2 (1.46) Chelsea
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Jadon Sancho highlights Tottenham’s big weakness which led to Chelsea win
That being said, Sancho spoke to Optus Sport after the game and suggested that Chelsea were confident of exposing Tottenham regardless.
The winger revealed what Enzo Maresca had been telling his Chelsea players in training ahead of the game, highlighting Spurs’ defensive inadequacies.
Ange Postecoglou manager / head coach of Tottenham Hotspur consoles Cristian Romero of Tottenham Hotspur as he goes off injured during the Premier ...
Photo by Catherine Ivill – AMA/Getty Images
READ MORE: Enzo Maresca spotted something Tottenham midfielder Yves Bissouma kept doing to Cole Palmer during Chelsea’s 4-3 win
Speaking in the interview, Sancho was initially asked: “You have so much attacking talent and you know, Spurs look a little bit defensively frail at the moment – you always would have felt that there were goals in for you?”
He replied: “Definitely, they’re very aggressive and we knew we would catch them if we broke the lines and beat their press.
“The gaffer always told us in training to stay wide, especially the wingers to create the one-vs-ones, you know the overlaps for two-vs-ones.
“So I’m just happy that we got the four goals today and the three points.”
Cristian Romero sums up Tottenham’s defensive woes
As mentioned, Tottenham’s defensive efforts became a lot harder after Romero’s injury in the first half.
Romero was slammed for a ‘ridiculous’ moment in the lead up to his departure, the kind of moment Spurs fans won’t have enjoyed.
All in all, it’s been a very difficult period for Tottenham who summarised their jekyll and hyde nature in both halves against Chelsea.
Perhaps Tottenham were robbed by a controversial VAR decision, but either way, Spurs also made plenty mistakes of their own.
Tottenham still have four more Premier League fixtures before the end of the year, and they can’t simply wait until January to improve once they’ve signed one or two more players.
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