All Tottenham took from their 2-0 win at Chelsea last Saturday evening was a helpful boost in the Premier League standings. But it feels far more significant than that. This is a fixture Tottenham almost never win.
In their 34 previous visits to Chelsea in the Premier League, they had won only once. It was their first win to nil at Stamford Bridge in any competition since December 1986, nearly 40 years ago. Winning at Chelsea is huge.
Plenty of Spurs fans have only ever seen this happen once before, in April 2018 under Mauricio Pochettino, when their team was a formidable force. Tottenham went into the game in the relegation zone with just one win this season – against promoted Coventry – after back-to-back 17th-place finishes, and with noteworthy absentees from their best team. Few supporters would have expected this result, and they are well within their rights to enjoy it.
The real reason this felt so seismic, though, is that it could be a turning point for a team that has veered terribly off course over the past two years. At great expense this summer, Tottenham bought into Roberto De Zerbi’s ideas, spending vast amounts to transform the team. Results in the early part of this season hinted that the new players would take a while to gel.
Spurs took until the 86th minute of their fifth match, at which point they were already 3-0 down to Aston Villa, to score their first league goal of the season. Since the international break that followed that defeat, though, Spurs have put in much-improved displays. They drew 1-1 at Manchester United, though they really deserved to win, and then secured their first win of the season against Coventry.
All of their goals in that 3-1 win were scored from outside the box and generated only 0.86 expected goals. They probably deserved the win, but it was not the most convincing display. However, in much more daunting surroundings away to Chelsea, they produced when it mattered most.
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