Sports Mole previews Thursday's Premier League clash between Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur, including predictions, team news and possible lineups.
Thursday's intriguing Premier League London derby pits a Chelsea side who completed a tremendous turnaround at the weekend host a Tottenham Hotspur team who fell just short of pulling off a similar achievement.
While Mauricio Pochettino - gearing up for another Lilywhites reunion - witnessed his crop fight back brilliantly against Aston Villa, Spurs were made to pay for a shoddy first half in an excruciating 3-2 North London derby defeat to Arsenal.
Match preview
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The writing appeared to be on the wall for Chelsea when the half-time whistle blew at Villa Park, as Marc Cucurella's unfortunate own goal and Morgan Rogers's exquisite strike propelled Unai Emery's side into a two-goal advantage, thanks in no small part to familiar Blues wastefulness in the final third.
However, for just the fourth time in their Premier League history, Chelsea remarkably avoided defeat after entering the break two goals down courtesy of Noni Madueke's curler and a sublime attempt from Conor Gallagher from a similar distance, and pandemonium briefly erupted in the away end when Robin Olsen and Axel Disasi inadvertently combined for an apparent winner.
Despite Craig Pawson having the best view of a perceived shove from Benoit Badiashile on Diego Carlos, the VAR intervened and convinced the on-field official to chalk the goal off, leading to Pawson receiving an earful from several enraged Chelsea stars as they were cruelly denied a courageous comeback triumph.
Gallagher admitted to feeling "gutted" at full time as the Blues' winless run in all tournaments stretched to three matches, but they remain safely in the top half of the standings in ninth position and are very much in the European mix heading into the final few games; seventh-placed Newcastle United have played a game more and are only five points better off.
While profligacy has reared its ugly head more often than not for Chelsea recently, prolific performances have been easy to come by at Stamford Bridge, where they have won five and drawn one of their last six matches and have scored multiple goals in all of them, albeit while also conceding more than twice in all but one of them.
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Chelsea's penchant for goal-laden games at home and Tottenham's engrossing defeat versus Arsenal certainly gives rise to an all-action affair on Thursday, where Ange Postecoglou's men have some derby day wrongs to right after failing in their bid to quell the title-chasing Gunners juggernaut.
Curiously, Spurs arguably performed better in the half that they conceded three goals to the 45 minutes where they netted twice, but even though calamities from David Raya and Declan Rice gifted Postecoglou's men a late route back into the game, goal number three eluded them as they fell to back-to-back defeats.
While Postecoglou also had a few choice words about the officiating, the Australian could not argue that set-pieces were his side's undoing once again, and no sooner was their top-four fate back in their own hands to being out of their control; they sit seven points below Villa with two games to make up.
Also licking the wounds from their humbling 4-0 thrashing at Newcastle United, Tottenham can only boast a mere two wins from their last 10 Premier League away matches and have just one goal to show from their last three on the road, while letting eight in at the other end of the field.
From the 52 goals that they have conceded this term, four came in November's painful home loss to Chelsea - where Postecoglou insisted on the high line with his side down to nine - and Tottenham have only prevailed in one of their last 33 matches at Stamford Bridge, where now-Blues boss Pochettino masterminded a 3-1 success almost exactly six years ago.
Chelsea Premier League form:
- D
- W
- D
- W
- L
- D
Chelsea form (all competitions):
- W
- D
- W
- L
- L
- D
Tottenham Hotspur Premier League form:
- L
- W
- D
- W
- L
- L
Team News
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During the dying embers of Chelsea's showdown with Villa, Thiago Silva - who confirmed in an emotional video this week that he would be leaving the club this summer - gingerly walked off with an apparent groin problem, one which should not clear up in time for Thursday's game.
Silva enters a packed Stamford Bridge medical bay also housing Wesley Fofana (knee), Reece James (thigh), Romeo Lavia (thigh), Lesley Ugochukwu (thigh), Malo Gusto (knee), Ben Chilwell (knee), Carney Chukwuemeka (knee) and Enzo Fernandez, who has undergone an operation to treat a troubling hernia.
The quartet of Raheem Sterling (back), Robert Sanchez (unspecified), Christopher Nkunku (thigh) and Levi Colwill (toe) will all need assessments in the coming hours too, and a recall awaits Disasi in defence owing to Silva's latest setback.
From current Chelsea players nursing injuries to a stricken erstwhile Blue, Tottenham's RB Leipzig loanee Timo Werner sustained a hamstring issue early on in the defeat to Arsenal and will surely miss out on a reunion with his former employers this week.
Werner joins the long-term quartet of Destiny Udogie (thigh), Fraser Forster (ankle), Ryan Sessegnon (thigh) and Manor Solomon (knee) on Tottenham's absentee list, but Oliver Skipp might battle back from a small knock in time to make the squad.
Skipp will not be the first port of call for any midfield changes, though - that honour belongs to Pape Sarr and Yves Bissouma - while Brennan Johnson and Richarlison will scrap it out for the right to replace the stricken Werner in attack.
Chelsea possible starting lineup:
Petrovic; Chalobah, Disasi, Badiashile, Cucurella; Caicedo, Gallagher; Madueke, Palmer, Mudryk; Jackson
Tottenham Hotspur possible starting lineup:
Vicario; Porro, Romero, Van de Ven, Davies; Sarr, Bissouma; Kulusevski, Maddison, Son; Richarlison
We say: Chelsea 3-2 Tottenham Hotspur
Two highly unpredictable and chaotic forces collide on Thursday evening, but goals are almost always to be expected at Stamford Bridge, where Chelsea have often made up for their defensive indiscipline with a killer instinct at the other end of the field.
Ruthlessness has been a bit harder for Pochettino's team to come by recently, but Tottenham's indifferent road form does not provide the travelling faithful with reason for optimism either, so we anticipate the Blues boss getting one over his former club once again as Chelsea do the Premier League double over Spurs for the 10th time.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
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