For the first time in over five years, Chelsea finally beat Everton thanks to a Jorginho’s penalty on opening weekend after Abdoulaye Doucoure was condemned for a foul on Ben Chilwell.
Despite playing without a striker following the suspension and injury of Salomon Rondon and Dominic Calvert-Lewin respectively, the Toffees were still able to cause the Chelsea defence a lot of troubles but unfortunately, were unable to beat Edouard Mendy.
The test that awaits Chelsea this weekend against Tottheham Hotspur will be much different and challenging. Chelsea were able to beat Spurs in all four meetings last season without conceding a goal, a tough one to take for the Sunday’s visitor.
But after coming from behind to record their biggest opening weekend win in the Premier league, Antonio Conte and his Tottheham side look very ready to avenge the poor results of last season.
Despite the duo of Son Hueng-Min and Harry Kane not getting on the score sheet, scoring four will be a result Conte is very proud of an will hope his main men will get off the mark for the new season in the derby.
Chelsea have quite an impressive record against Tottenham, winning six of the last seven league meetings with one ending in a draw. They’ve also been able to keep six clean sheets and conceded just one goal in the process.
In fact, that only goal was an own goal by Antonio Rudiger. The lash Tottenham Hotspur player to score a league against Chelsea at the Stamford Bridge was Dele Alli, who left the club in January to join Everton.
To cap it off, Tottenham boast only one win in their last 30 league visits to Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge Stadium. A 3-1 win in April 2018 thanks to a Dele Alli second half double.
It was current Spurs manager, Antonio Conte, who was in charge at Chelsea when they were beaten at home by Spurs. As much as he was pained on that day, he will be hoping for the same outcome on Sunday.
As much as the history is on the side of the host, it may have nothing to do with the outcome on Sunday evening because Antonio Conte’s side look more convincing than their host.
Both teams will have almost a full squad to call on for the match with Tottenham only missing Oliver Skipp due to a knock. The young midfielder wouldn’t be expected to play even though he is fit anyways.
Timo Werner left Chelsea to return to RB Leipzig earlier in the week while Marc Cucurella played in the later stages of the win at Everton and started training with the group before the Everton game, he could be set to make his first start for the club.
Raheem Sterling and Kalidou Koulibaly enjoyed an impressive debut at the Goodison Park and will most likely continue in their position in Sunday’s derby match.
Ivan Perisic was impressive in his cameo against Southampton but Ryan Sessegnon, who played the most part of the game left Conte with some tough decisions to make and he might stick with the young left-back due to Perisic being a newcomer.
Yves Bissouma and Clement Lenglet all came on to make their debut while the suspended Richarlison will return for the derby. Richarlison scored the only goals for Everton last season when they beat Chelsea at the Goodison, a match where he picked up the suspension he served at Tottenham.
Despite playing for the lesser teams in Everton and Watford, Richarlison has a very good record against Chelsea. He’s faced them nine times, won five times and drawn once. Losing the remaining three games.
He has also been directly involved in four goals against them so in the Brazilian, Antonio Conte has a real threat to try and break the heart of his former employers on Sunday.
Predicted Lineups — Chelsea: Edouard Mendy, Ben Chilwell, Marc Cucurella, Kalidou Koulibaly, Thiago Silva, Reece James, N’Golo Kante, Jorginho, Mason Mount, Raheem Sterling, Kai Havertz.
Tottenham Hotspur: Hugo Lloris, Ben Davies, Eric Dier, Christian Romero, Ryan Sessegnon, Rodrigo Bentancur, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerj, Emerson Royal, Son Hueng-Min, Harry Kane, Dejan Kulusevski.
Author: Kehinde Hassan Afolabi