Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur face off tonight for the second time this Premier League season.
It is one of the standout games from this round of top-flight fixtures, given it is another edition of one of the most vociferous rivalries in the English game. And both sides have plenty to play for at Stamford Bridge, whether to achieve their goals this season or just for the sake of pride.
Here, The Athletic’s Chelsea correspondent Liam Twomey and Tottenham Hotspur correspondent Jay Harris discuss the upcoming match.
What has changed since the last time the teams met in early December?
Liam Twomey: Chelsea’s impressive 4-3 comeback win over Tottenham on December 8 moved them to within four points of Premier League leaders Liverpool, sparking a lively debate about their burgeoning title credentials. Enzo Maresca was notably keen to stress his young team was not ready to battle for top spot, and events in the four months since have proven him grimly correct.
If the Premier League had begun on December 9, Chelsea would be 14th. They have won just five of 14 league matches since beating Spurs, garnering 18 points — only four more than Ange Postecoglou’s team. They also have a slightly negative goal difference over that span (18 scored, 19 conceded), which underlines the attacking problems that have undermined them.
Injuries to Nicolas Jackson and Noni Madueke have removed two of the most dangerous receivers of incisive passes from talisman Cole Palmer. Palmer has also seen his own goal production dry up completely since scoring in back-to-back Premier League games against Crystal Palace and Bournemouth in January.
Chelsea are still fourth (at the time of this conversation), just about on track for Champions League qualification, with key players including Jackson and Madueke nearing returns. But they urgently need a lift to re-establish some positive momentum for a challenging run-in, and beating Spurs again would do just that.
Chelsea celebrate after their win over Spurs in December (Ben Stansall/AFP via Getty Images)
Jay Harris: Tottenham were sent into a downward spiral after losing at home to Chelsea for the second season in a row. Postecoglou’s first-choice centre-back partnership Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven returned from injury in that chaotic game on December 8 but suffered setbacks and have only started together once since then.
Spurs won their next game against Southampton but then went on a seven-game winless run which included damaging defeats by Everton and Leicester City. They reached the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup but were thrashed by Liverpool at Anfield in the second leg.
Postecoglou has had to juggle a threadbare squad and has been forced to name lots of academy players on the bench. Just when it seemed like the situation was improving with the return of Wilson Odobert, Dominic Solanke and Destiny Udogie, Kevin Danso and Dejan Kulusevski picked up injuries.
Tottenham are low on confidence and there is serious doubt over Postecoglou’s long-term future. The only spark of optimism is the possibility of winning the Europa League.
There’s discontent at both clubs currently, but which one is having the better season?
Twomey: For all of the problems Chelsea are dealing with, no one at Stamford Bridge or Cobham would swap places with Tottenham. Maresca’s team is depleted and clearly flawed, but remains well positioned to earn a return to the Champions League in 2025-26 — by some distance the most important objective for this season.
The return in the domestic cups has been disappointing given Chelsea’s history, and Maresca provoked the ire of many fans after a limp FA Cup exit away at Brighton & Hove Albion last month by citing as a “positive” the fact that his players could focus fully on the Premier League and Conference League.
But there is still a very good chance that the Italian will end his first season as head coach with a trophy; Chelsea are overwhelming favourites to win the UEFA Conference League and as long as that success goes hand-in-hand with Champions League qualification, 2024-25 will go down as an unequivocal step forward.
Harris: Despite losing three of their last five league games, Chelsea are fourth in the table (at the time of this conversation) and have a good chance of qualifying for the Champions League.
Spurs have lost over half of their top-flight matches this season and are only above Everton on goal difference but none of the supporters will care if they win the Europa League. However, if Postecoglou fails to deliver success in that competition then this will go down as potentially the worst season in Spurs’ modern history.
Tottenham’s chairman Daniel Levy summed it up best, in a statement accompanying their annual financial results, by describing it as a “highly challenging season”.
How do both sets of fans feel about the head coach?
Twomey: Maresca’s approval rating among supporters has plummeted alongside Chelsea’s form since early December.
Part of it is results and part of it is performances; a view has taken hold within a large swathe of the fanbase, reinforced by some of the Italian’s public comments, that the team’s early form in 2024-25 was powered by the chaotic, transitional muscle memory forged during Mauricio Pochettino’s brief tenure and that the more the slower, possession-focused principles of Marescaball have taken hold, the more predictable and less effective Chelsea have become.
That theory does not make much allowance for how the loss of several key players to injury (not just Jackson and Madueke but also Romeo Lavia and Wesley Fofana) have upended the balance that Maresca was attempting to establish — but the fact that so few are prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt is indicative of broader disillusionment with the club’s direction.
The act of criticising Maresca has become a more convenient shorthand for expressing opposition to the overall strategy deployed by majority owners Clearlake Capital.
Harris: It feels like the tide is beginning to turn with Postecoglou. The majority of the fanbase backed the Australian throughout a miserable winter when Spurs were ravaged by injuries but performances have not improved since key players have returned and difficult questions are being asked.
Spurs were not thrilling at the beginning of the campaign when they had a healthy squad and it is not unreasonable to ask if the injury crisis became a convenient excuse for a team which was already declining.
It feels like the tide is turning on Postecoglou (Alex Davidson/Getty Images)
And what about the players?
Twomey: Many supporters recognise that Chelsea’s unprecedented transfer spending under Clearlake and Todd Boehly has assembled a very talented core of young players, led by the consistently excellent Moises Caicedo and the peerless Palmer, adored at Stamford Bridge. Marc Cucurella is also emerging as something of a cult hero, for his personality and his play.
But many others have so far failed to convince a majority of fans, and on Chelsea’s bad days — which have outnumbered the good ones in the last four months — the shortcomings of this team and the holes in this squad are glaring, particularly in both boxes.
Robert Sanchez lost the trust of Stamford Bridge to be the team’s starting goalkeeper long ago and has been booed and jeered at times. Jackson is respected for his work ethic and all-round contribution but his erratic finishing is a source of deep frustration, made even more fraught by the lack of credible No 9 alternatives available to Maresca.
Harris: There is a core group of players that Spurs should build around for the next five years which includes Solanke, Archie Gray, Lucas Bergvall, Djed Spence, Micky van de Ven, Guglielmo Vicario and a few others.
This summer feels like the right time to sell underperforming or injury-prone players who have been given multiple chances including Yves Bissouma and Richarlison. Romero is the vice-captain but he has two years left on his contract and has been linked with a move to Atletico Madrid. Would it be worth cashing in on the World Cup winner whose availability record has been patchy for Spurs anyways?
Tottenham triggered a one-year contract extension in Son Heung-min’s contract but his long-term future needs to be resolved too.
If you could take one thing from the other club, what would it be?
Twomey: Tottenham’s stadium! Chelsea Pitch Owners would never sign off on relocating to north London but within Chelsea there is plenty of grudging admiration for Daniel Levy’s success in delivering what some regard as the finest, most modern club arena in Europe.
Stamford Bridge is an iconic home boasting 120 years of history, but the question of what to do about its limited capacity is the defining one hanging over Chelsea’s future. Whether it be on the same site or at Earls Court, they need their own version of Tottenham Hotspur Stadium sooner rather than later.
Harris: Tottenham would love to have Chelsea’s strength in depth and the ability to completely change their starting XI for different competitions. You could make a strong argument that Spurs’ failure to replace fringe players who left last summer, including Oliver Skipp, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Emerson Royal, contributed to their injury crisis over winter. Key players were barely afforded any rest until their bodies broke down.
If I had to pick a particular player, then I would go for Caicedo. He would offer the defence the protection it desperately craves and could nurture Gray in the No 6 role.
What worries you about the other team ahead of the game?
Twomey: Tottenham’s league position means they will come to Stamford Bridge with very little to lose, and some of their best wins under Postecoglou have come away from home.
Harris: Jackson, Madueke and Palmer being reunited sounds like a recipe for disaster for Spurs.
Jackson could return for Chelsea (Carl Recine/Getty Images)
And what should the other team be worried about?
Twomey: Chelsea showed in the December meeting that they are not cowed by Spurs in the manner they sometimes give the impression of being by other ‘Big Six’ opponents. Maresca also has plenty of attackers (as long as they are fit) who can exploit Postecoglou’s high line.
Harris: Tottenham have demonstrated on multiple occasions this season that they can turn up and win important games. They have beaten Manchester City twice, Manchester United three times and earned an impressive 1-0 Carabao Cup victory over Liverpool in January.
When everything falls into the right place, Spurs can still cause opponents a lot of problems.
What’s a realistic aim now for the rest of the season?
Twomey: Chelsea have one of the tougher Premier League run-ins on paper, but finishing well enough to secure Champions League qualification is well within the capabilities of this group. It would also be a huge shock and disappointment if they do not win the Conference League.
Harris: Tottenham have lost half of their games in the top flight this season and Postecoglou needs to change that alarming statistic. The main goal though is to lift the Europa League trophy in Bilbao on May 21. Anything less and the chances of Postecoglou sticking around for next season will be slim.
How big is Thursday night’s game relative to the usual clashes between these teams?
Twomey: We are nowhere near the stakes of the infamous Battle of the Bridge, and Tottenham’s lowly league position means only one of these teams can meaningfully affect their Premier League destiny. But this is a big game for Chelsea and perhaps even more so for Maresca, who needs to boost his popularity with supporters. Few things go further towards achieving that end than beating Spurs.
Harris: It is not on the same scale as December’s match when both teams were directly competing with each other towards the top of the table. Tottenham need to win on Thursday to give themselves a confidence boost ahead of the first leg of their Europa League quarter-final against Eintracht Frankfurt next week.
What’s your prediction?
Twomey: Expect a feisty London derby with shades of real animosity, particularly after the way Chelsea humiliated Spurs in December. As long as Maresca’s team have Jackson back and bring the appropriate level of intensity, they should have enough quality to squeeze out a win.
Harris: It will be another erratic encounter where Chelsea look to exploit the space behind Tottenham’s back four through their rapid wingers Madueke and Pedro Neto. If Tottenham are at full strength with Kulusevski and Van de Ven both available, then I can see them coming away with a positive result.
(Top photo: Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
