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One win in 40 Chelsea trips but Spurs fuelled by ‘everyone wanting us down’ Tottenham have dismal record that dates to 1990 and covers 27 managers, but Roberto De Zerbi has tasted victory at Stamford Bridge and wants his players to visualise win there https://www.thetimes.com/sport/football/article/spurs-Chelsea-preview-relegation-s0w0h3z65 When Roberto De Zerbi pulled his players in for the usual team meeting on Monday morning at Hotspur Way, there was no point hiding away from it. The place where Tottenham Hotspur can secure Premier League survival on Tuesday night with a win also happens to be the place where they almost never win. “Yes,” De Zerbi said. “We spoke this morning about this record.” One victory in 36 years away to Chelsea is the problem Tottenham are desperate to solve, a remarkable run that includes a single success from 40 trips to Stamford Bridge, going all the way back to 1990. De Zerbi, in two seasons in charge of Brighton & Hove Albion, won as many matches away to Chelsea as Spurs have managed during a period in which 27 different coaches — including interims — have been in the dugout. Still, De Zerbi’s revival project at Tottenham in the past six weeks has been driven by the confidence and conviction of their head coach. Spurs are two points ahead of West Ham and their superior goal difference of 13 means a draw against Chelsea will, realistically, be enough to prevent the doom-tussle going to a nail-biting final day, when Tottenham are at home to Everton and West Ham, who lost to Newcastle United on Sunday, host Leeds. But De Zerbi insists he is not thinking about settling for a draw. “No, no, stop,” he said. “We can’t start the game thinking to draw. We speak in the meeting to win the games. Both games.” Instead, his pitch to the Spurs players was about looking forward, as well as back. Chelsea, who have drifted to tenth in the Premier League table and with Xabi Alonso not due to start as permanent manager until July, could elevate their own disappointing season by making Tottenham’s significantly more uncomfortable. Chelsea’s fans would love nothing more than to nudge their London rivals closer to the drop. “Tottenham adds an extra incentive, any London derby does,” said Calum McFarlane, Chelsea’s interim head coach, who referenced the infamous “Battle of the Bridge” between Chelsea and Spurs in 2016, when the latter needed to win to keep their title hopes alive. Instead, they drew 2-2 in one of the dirtiest games in Premier League history. “There were some top players on the pitch [in 2016]. It was a really intense game, reallygood for the neutral,” McFarlane said. “I’m sure it will be very similar on Tuesday. Tottenham are top of the table for yellow cards (91) this season and Chelsea first for reds (7), but De Zerbi said he wanted his players to be “always calm, calm with blood”. He also wants them to visualise the unthinkable. “It’s good to imagine ourselves celebrating the win in their stadium. It’s the reason football is like this, no? It’s a motivation, a challenge,” he said. “I am Italian and in Italy, it’s the same. For the biggest teams, it’s the same. “We have to accept the pressure. We have to enjoy this pressure. We have to find new motivation from this pressure. I think it’s a good thing for us. If everyone wants Tottenham relegated, it’s a big motivation for me, and I hope for my players as well. We have to accept that football is nice because of the rivalità.” De Zerbi has said before that the sense that so many other clubs would love Tottenham to go down should give his players an edge. “Pride is amazing motivation,” he added. “The pride. If everyone wants Tottenham relegated, I think for one Tottenham player, one Tottenham fan, all the people who work inside Tottenham, it has to be the biggest motivation.” Gallagher helped Spurs to win away to Villa and restore some belief in the side times photographer marc aspland There are also the steps already taken, Tottenham’s mini-revival that has put safety in sight. One month ago Spurs had just lost De Zerbi’s opening game 1-0 away to Sunderland, which left them 18th, two points behind West Ham. They drew the next game at home to Brighton, making it 15 games without a victory, and for a while against Wolverhampton Wanderers, they were even four points adrift. Instead, they beat Wolves to end that winless run and then outplayed Aston Villa to make it two out of two. They head to Chelsea unbeaten in four. “I explained [to the players] the last win before Wolves was 28th December and then we won two games in a row. It’s not the record that is important. It’s the mood, how you go to play the game, because [after] we won two games, we [thought we] could win four games in a row, five games in a row. Why not?” De Zerbi said. “The most important is the spirit, the personality for tomorrow — to play a good game, to make points, because the most important thing now is to stay up and to play Premier League next season.” De Zerbi said Guglielmo Vicario was fit again after recovering from hernia surgery, although the excellent recent performances of Antonin Kinsky make a change of goalkeeper at this stage unlikely. “Vicario is No 1 but we have to consider the physical condition, the moment, everything,” De Zerbi said. “I have a big relationship with Antonin Kinsky and Vicario as well and there will not be any problem.” James Maddison almost won Tottenham a penalty after coming on in the 82nd minute in the draw against Leeds United last Monday for his first competitive match in a year after an anterior cruciate ligament injury. Maddison could again play a part off the bench against Chelsea, although De Zerbi said he had had a “small problem” last week and so he would speak to the midfielder this morning. Dominic Solanke is still out with a hamstring strain, but may be able to feature in the final match, against Everton on Sunday. Chelsea v Tottenham Tuesday, 8.15pm TV Sky Sports

Meaning we are broke and we need to sell best players to raise cash. I can't believe Alonso bought into this.

Barco is coming here for the midfield next to Caicedo. Everything I've seen of him makes him a great fit for the engine room midfield role and I just don't see his skills being useful at wingback

Man United is a good fit for him. United could offer UCL, that is the main factor.

👀🔵Lewis Hall is open to LEAVING Newcastle this summer. Chelsea and Manchester United are among the clubs actively seeking a new left-back. (@alex_crook)

Chelsea 1-2 Spurs

Finished 10th that year though

My conspiracy theory is Chelsea is losing to ensure they're out of UEFA competitions next season since that will help them avoid sanctions.

I wasn't actually considering Hato as a centerback atleast for now. He is young and likely to make mistakes if played as a Cb in a fast, quality tempo league like the premier League. I feel the fullbacks we have currently will do well under the right system. Centerback is where our major problem is. We don't have a central defender who organizes the backline well especially in terms of positioning like Thiago Silva used to do. The likes of Tosin, Badashiele, Disasi, Fofana, Chalobah etc are not good in that. That's the first issue we have, poor positioning before talking about good decision making.

⏳️👌BREAKING: Chelsea are shaping up for a legal battle with Manchester City over their putative appointment of Enzo Maresca. (@Telegraph)

Not convinced by Barco as a LB for PL... he is not great defending 1v1 and he's also tiny (couple of inches smaller than Cucurella). He's great at passing though, think there was some stat about his through ball numbers but just based on the eye test the guy plays great through balls and plays great in transition, still playing quality through balls on the move or under pressure. I think he'll have his uses against low blocks for sure. Not even close to the kind of signing we need to fix the core issues in the squad, its just another "if he improves a lot in some areas he could become a hell of a player" signing for the future imo, that can get game time in certain circumstances already. But lets see...

🔵🗯Joao Pedro now dreams of Barcelona. Not making the World Cup is a big reason for him to put the Barcelona jersey to get him back among the elite. He grew up admiring Ronaldinho, Neymar and knows Raphinha well. The striker will do his part to wear Blaugrana. (@mundodeportivo)

It’s been a very tough four years hasn’t it? I’m not saying that all our problems will now…View the full article

That would be cool in theory but top keepers can play at their best level well into their 30’s and Maignan is only 30. If he were to come here and perform amazingly then Penders is locked out for at least a few years. I think what I would probably do is just take the risk and make Penders our #1 this summer. What I think will actually happen is the club will convince Alonso to give Sanchez one more season before Penders takes the job after another Strasbourg season of development.

Slowly letting myself get excited about Xabi, albeit I worry that expectations are a little too high for him with the way the media are talking about him (as if we've appointed Prime Jose). If we go and sign 2 top CBs and a GK then I might actually get excited for a new era. If we don't, its just more of the same shit with a new coach, the ceiling will always be low.

What we should have been doing for the last few years

What a comical thing to have to report. “Big club targets adult players who could actually crack the starting lineup”

Maybe in hindsight it was more Pochs system causing this but I honestly thought Petrovic was really bad for us and the advanced data backed that up. I think the desperation for anyone but Sanchez caused it to go under the radar, similar to the ageing Ivanovic/Baba Rahman situation.

To think this all started with the Courtois - Kepa shit show Petrovic - Sanchez was interesting because you could see some potential in Petrovic and Bournemouth took that chance.

Knowing Joe Shields he'd be on the phone to City asking for Trafford's price.

Hato hasn't done too much wrong of recent times for a young CB/LB who's still learning and developing. Between Reece, Colwill, Hato you have a starting base for the backline but we need reinforcements badly. I fear that keeping Josh here would be ruining his development, at his age, he needs regular games, not bench warming duties. He should have been on loan somewhere in the PL this season.

There is still time for Neymar's sister to have a birthday again.

Carlo just wanted the rest of the football world to walk around like him with a raised eye brow. Seriously though,bizarre squad selection choices. Could be positive for us.JP getting rest and then a pre-season with Xabi,channel his frustration into positivity for next season and beyond. Could be negative as he may think the season the club had cost him this WC.but Barcelona are just browsing Harrods on dole money budget. So not bothered about them actually taking him,just maybe unsettling him.

I don't think Palmer is going to the WC, I honestly think he will take Foden instead.

Exactly