Chelsea 2-2 Tottenham: ‘Mazacar’ dominate initially, AVB’s Subs changes tempo

Spurs came back twice from a goal behind to grab a crucial point in a 2-2 draw at Stamford Bridge. In a game that seemed to be favouring Chelsea due to some terrific link-ups between Hazard and Mata, was once again changed by AVB’s influx in the 2nd half and a fantastic display by Adebayor upfront.

Despite being in the midst of a terribly congested period, Rafa Benitez’s rotation policy has worked well within the squad. Frank Lampard was rested for this game and so Luiz and Ramirez came into midfield. Most importantly for the Blues, Eden Hazard was fit enough to start the game and so Moses was left out. In-form Torres started in front of the ‘Mazacar’ and Gary Cahill returned back in defence.

Things were not so rosy for AVB and Spurs as most of his midfield was on the treatment table. Dembele’s injury meant that Parker and Huddlestone had to start in deep midfield with no other option on the bench. The attacking trio of Bale, Holtby and Lennon was headed by Adebayor upfront, who started in place of the reportedly injured Defoe.

Spurs’ deep midfield lacks quality, no long balls to Bale

Both managers had fielded a 4-2-3-1 with a midfield trio having a midfielder at No.10 rather than another striker. It was the quality and dynamism of the deeper duo where Spurs suffered. Rarely this season have Huddlestone and Parker started games together, and apart from injuries the only reason being that one was a tackler and the other a distributor from deep; so in case of the duo starting together, Spurs’ midfield starts to operate from very deep and hence doesn’t provide enough in attack.

With the duo playing extremely deep, Spurs’ backline of Dawson and Vertonghen started to hold a higher line. Though they caught out Torres and Mata offside on a couple of occasions, the tactic backfired due to the merger of the deep midfield and high defence-line. So on the ball, Spurs’ half was full of chaos as Huddlestone and Parker attempted shorter passes to one another rather than distributing it to the wings. Whereas all the duties of finding the wingers was left to either Dawson or Vertonghen’s skill at doing so; this allowed Bale and Adebayor to get glimpses of the long-ball only on rare occasions in the first half.

Playing a deep midfield against the likes of Chelsea who have direct runners in Mata and Hazard has its own benefits, but AVB was not able to take advantage of those largely due to the torrid game his duo had. Parker has been having a horrible second half of this season, and now AVB’s initial call to sell the Englishman makes sense. He let Ramires run by on many occasions and was not able to deal with Chelsea pressing higher up the pitch. Huddlestone, who came into this team as Parker’s replacement, also was nowhere near his best, as the Englishman wasted ample number of good chances from set-pieces and when in open space. Eden Hazard’s continual presence over him was surely a factor to affect his game.

Mesmerising ‘Mazacar’ can now back-track, Torres’s clever positioning

When a team has an attacking trio of Hazard, Mata and Oscar, it deserves to play in the Champions League; and now unless Rafa screws up big time, Chelsea stand safe at 2 points above 4th placed Arsenal. Rafa’s decision to risk Hazard turned out to be a great one, as the Belgian was the Chelsea’s best player on the night. Starting on the left, Hazard was terrific on the ball while attacking and the Belgian’s quick feet and ball control left Huddlestone and Walker gasping for breath. A surprising aspect of his game was how much time he spent backtracking with Walker. Though he gave away a couple of freekicks dangerously, Hazard’s backtracking was the main reason why Ashley Cole spent most of the first half in attack.

While Hazard and Oscar were keenly involved in back-tracking on both the flanks, it was Mata’s high-up positioning that caused Spurs all sorts of problems. Fernando Torres is not the best target man for long balls and so was beaten to it always by Dawson. But this made Torres drop much deeper from Spurs’ defence and often was positioned in the small space between Dawson and Huddlestone. This on the other hand allowed Mata to venture higher up and engage Jan Vertonghen in defence. The balls played into Mata were directly from the midfield via Luiz or Hazard, and were not through Torres. So this allowed Fernando to make unmarked runs behind Dawson, with Mata working on Vertonghen. David Luiz’s vision in midfield was important here, as the Brazilian’s long balls often found Mata goalside of Vertonghen.

Though Torres did not venture into the main striker’s role, he tried a varied variety of roles. Similar to the position where he came on against United, Torres often shifted into wide out positions on the flanks. This kept the fullbacks, often Asssou-Ekkotu occupied with the Spaniard and then allowed the likes of Ramires to rush into the gap created by the LB and Scott Parker. This resulted in the 2nd goal for Chelsea, and though Torres’s involvement was crucial here, Scotty Parker is going to get a lot of stick for this goal.

Adebayor comes of age, Bale conquered

Spurs started the game in an unconventionally slow manner and rarely got their main man Bale on the ball. AVB has finally realised how little Bale provides in terms of strength of midfield when played at No.10 and so he shifted bale to the left wing. This kept Cesar Azpilicueta out of Chelsea’s attacks for most of the first half, but rarely was the Spanish fullback actually troubled by Bale’s pace.

Due to Spurs’ midfield being much deeper than usual, it was left to Dawson or Vertonghen to distribute long balls to Bale, and these were successful only on a couple of occasions. So mostly Bale had to feed on balls played onto his feet, and then hope that his pace could better than of Azpilicueta. Bale got past the fullback on a couple of occasions but the towering duo of Cahill and Ivanovic cleared any danger on such occasions.

Spurs had broken bank over Adebayor’s transfer from City and this was the first time that the ex-Arsenal man came close to justifying his tag. During the initial phases of the game, Lewis Holtby was playing as the No.10 for Spurs but David Luiz’s utter dominance in midfield meant that the German midfielder spent most of his time tracking the Brazilian. This left Adebayor with very less support and he received most of the balls in very deep positions rather than holding play upfront. Here again the lack of long balls comes in, except on 1 occasion where it was Vertonghen again who found the Togo international behind Chelsea’ defence.

Adebayor’s first goal came from a Chelsea corner, and the ball came to ‘Ade’ on the counter. Though his finish from 25 yards was majestic, Gary Cahill’s closing down on this occasion is hugely questionable. Bale’s presence on the overlap was also crucial on this occasion, as he temporarily pulled away Ivanovic.

AVB trumps Rafa in Subs, Dempsey’s arrival changes the game

In terms of match changing substitutions, AVB and Rafa have received contrasting accolades from the fans. While AVB’s changes against City were called season defining, Rafa has often received stick for his changes except for the Liverpool game when he brought on Mikel for Lampard.

Here again, AVB was the first to act as he brought on Sigurdsson for Lennon. In just the previous move, Lennon had made a darting diagonal run, similar to the one made by him against Arsenal. This move made him shift to the left after spending a fruitless first half on the right. Lennon on the right was wasteful in attack as he tried to attack centrally rather than use his pace on the wing. This made Cole shift much more central, as he had Hazard tracking with Walker on the flanks.

Now with Sigurdsson coming on for Lennon on the left, Bale shifted to the right. Gylfi is not much of a winger and he quickly shifted into a narrow No.10 role. This saw Assou-Ekotto attacking down the left wing for the first time in the night, mainly due to Bale’s redundant presence here initially. Oscar now had a much tougher job on this flank and was often not able to block the crosses.

It was AVB’s second change that was game-changing as he brought on Dempsey in place of Holtby. The signals made by the substitute coming on are often indications to AVB’s plan; just as Holtby had signalled Dembele to push up and join him in a 2 man attacking duo late against City, Dembele’s signalling to Sigurdsson was clear that he and the Icelandic international would keep swapping places, with Dempsey starting in the No.10 now.

This change also changed Adebayor’s game dynamically. For the first time in the night he had a No.10 who was willing to run at the defence and for whom his holding up would work. This was immediately seen seconds after Dempsey’s arrival when Adebayor held up the play against Ivanovic deep in Chelsea’s box. This allowed Dempsey and Sigurdsson to run directly at the defence as Luiz was now busy with Bale pressing in on the right. Tottenham’s 2nd goal came via some fantastic play between all 4 of the aforementioned: Assou-Ekotto on the left wing, Adebayor holding Ivanovic well and flicking back for Sigurdsson, and Gylfi finishing tremendously from a narrow No.10 role.

Rafa’s changes saw Victor Moses come on for Eden Hazard. This change saw Chelsea press higher up the pitch to induce mistakes from the Spurs defence; and if not for some crucial misses by Ramires, the game would have been wrapped up much before. Rafa’s 2nd change was the one that caused mass distress, as Yossi Benayoun came on for Oscar. Though the Israel international just came in to provide fresh legs, his arrival showed that Rafa was going to strive to grab a point rather than go for all 3.

This game has had a huge impact on the CL spots. Chelsea stand firm in 3rd place with a 2 point lead over Arsenal, who also have a 1 point lead over Spurs. The next set of games for Spurs and Chelsea are on the weekend against Villa and Stoke, while Arsenal conveniently play only on Tuesday.

The crux of this game lay in the immense back-tracking carried out by Hazard and Oscar, and on Spurs finally finding a route to goal which did not involve Gareth Bale. This has been a stand-out game for the strikers as Adebayor was untouchable and played like a 25 million signing, while Torres in his somewhat laid-back role was also impressive in shades.

Top of the match: Emanuel Adebayor

Flop of the match: Scott Parker