Premier League 2018/19: 3 reasons why Tottenham lost to Chelsea

#3 Chelsea defended brilliantly

Dogged defending from the likes of Antonio Rudiger helped Chelsea to victory

Chelsea’s first half was marred by some errors – most notably from David Luiz, whose mind appeared to be anywhere but on the game at times – but once Pedro scored 12 minutes into the first half their defending improved dramatically to the point where Tottenham were completely shut out.

Sure, Spurs’ attackers all had poor games by their lofty standards, but a lot of that was down to Chelsea’s defensive strength. Luiz looked massively improved in the second half, Antonio Rudiger was impressive throughout the game and Pedro in particular was willing to chase back in order to defend, making a tremendous tackle in the box on Christian Eriksen at one stage.

Essentially, once Chelsea’s first goal went in, they seemed happy to sit back and soak up the pressure from Tottenham – and the tactic worked thoroughly, as they shut Tottenham out and left them frustrated by the end of the game.

You have to give boss Maurizio Sarri plenty of credit for pulling this one off, as he’s been criticised previously for not really having a plan B. Here he switched his usual tactic up somewhat into a Mourinho-esque defensive shell, and it worked perfectly.