"Massive" Chelsea clash is Tottenham's chance to show the world what they are made of
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Tottenham need to step up to the plate against Chelsea and at least put in a performance, if not claim a victory.
Because if they don’t then we will rightly start to question whether or not they can live up to all the hype and talk of them being a title force in the years to come.
These are the kind of games in which players can show what they are really made of.
I remember playing for Nottingham Forest against Manchester United, then the champions of England, on a Monday night, and thinking, ‘If I do well against this lot then I can prove to myself I can compete at this level.’
That’s exactly the mindset Harry Kane, who has labelled the match "massive", and Dele Alli need to take into Wednesday night's fixture at White Hart Lane.
They need to forget the run Chelsea are on and go out and show they could get into any side in the Premier League and not just a young team with lofty ambitions of one day winning it.
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The way Kane and Alli are playing , it looks as if they have finally shaken off their Euro Championship hangover.
And with four-goal hauls in their last two games — both away from home — Spurs as a whole look like they are in a free-scoring vein of form.
But, man for man, only two of their players — Hugo Lloris ahead of Thibaut Courtois and Toby Alderweireld/Jan Vertonghen over Gary Cahill, which shouldn’t be seen as a slight on the Blues' England defender — would get into the Chelsea team. And that’s not good enough if they want to be seen as genuine challengers.
(Photo: Getty)
That said, Spurs will be more than relishing the leaders' visit and, although it will be difficult, Mauricio Pochettino has very good full-backs who like to bomb forward and they could outdo even Victor Moses and Marcos Alonso.
The Battle of the Bridge last May will still be fresh in their minds as well, and on top of that there’s the fact Chelsea fans dubbed Tottenham’s home ground ‘Three Point Lane’ for many years because it was such a happy hunting ground for their team.
(Photo: Reuters)
(Photo: Getty)
Those should be reasons enough for Pochettino’s men to be right at it — and the chance to stop Chelsea equalling Arsenal’s record of 14 successive wins will also be a real carrot.
For Chelsea players, games won’t be coming quickly enough at the moment.
We had a couple of good runs at Liverpool and during those spells it felt like 90 minutes passed in a heartbeat.
A couple of times, I walked off genuinely thinking that I could play our next game there and then — it’s the exact opposite of how things feel when you’re on a bad run and one game seems to take two weeks.
(Photo: Seconds Left/REX/Shutterstock)
The record will be an added incentive for the Blues, but it could also mean there are one or two nerves and Pochettino will send his side out with a message to show the world what they are made of.
While I’m not saying they are definitely going to win, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Spurs did take all three points.
I certainly think they will get at least a draw to stop Chelsea’s streak.