TALKING POINTS

How influential is a good start over the remainder of the season? Should Chelsea win the big London derby on Sunday, it will be the first time since 2005/06 that the Blues have won the first three league games. That season we went on to win the first nine, and José Mourinho steered his team to back-to-back titles.

In contrast, the opening salvoes of 2006/07 brought two wins and a defeat (at Boro); last season there two victories and a draw against Liverpool. In neither season did Chelsea ever quite recapture the imperious form of Mourinho's second season. So topping the table at this stage is an excellent start.

On the other hand, how damaging to morale is a poor start? Tottenham, perennially 'breaking into the top four' over the summer recess, seem currently to specialise in derailing their own bandwagon as quickly as possible.

When 2006/07 kicked off, they lost three of their opening four matches. Their two straight defeats so far this season have mirrored the start they made in 2007/08, when they lost to a stoppage time goal at Sunderland then went down 1-3 to Everton at White Hart Lane.

They thrashed Derby 4-0 in their third match, at home. That suggests the players' awareness of writing their names into the history books for the wrong reason: Spurs have never before lost their first three Premier League games.

The last occasion they fired off three straight blanks was actually 29 years ago, in the old First Division. Then managed by Keith Burkenshaw, they lost to Middlesbrough (h) 1-3, Norwich (a) 0-4 and Stoke (a) 1-3. That season, in 1979/80, they finished in 14th place. They will be fighting extra hard on Sunday to avoid emulating the likes of Paul Miller, Tony Galvin and Gerry Armstrong.

The transfer window will be open a day longer this year because 31 August falls on a Sunday. For some clubs the deadline can't come soon enough; others must be wishing it lasted until next weekend so they could strengthen their squad.

Spurs' perspective has been skewed by the protracted business surrounding Dimitar Berbatov's destiny. The sought-after Bulgarian was dropped last weekend because, according to former Blue Gus Poyet (now Juande Ramos' assistant), he was 'not in the right frame of mind'. There he was, filling his head with silly ideas like winning a League title for the first time in his career.

His omission meant that, with Robbie Keane and Jermain Defoe already sold, Darren Bent was Spurs' sole striker last weekend for the 1-2 home defeat by Sunderland.

Despite a prolific pre-season, the former Charlton player has looked ineffectual on his own in the season proper. Unless one of Tottenham's targeted forwards is bought in time, therefore, the possibility remains that Berbatov will feature against Chelsea.

STAR STAT Tottenham have only ever won twice away to the Premier League's current 'big four'. Their record is: played 64, won two (against Arsenal and Liverpool both in 1993), drawn 19 and lost 43.

Manchester United do not have a league fixture this weekend as the Champions League victors face Uefa Cup winners Zenit St Petersburg in the Uefa Super Cup showcase in Monaco.

The postponement of Fulham's visit to Old Trafford means that United do not have another home league game until 27 September, when Bolton are the visitors. Before then, they face possibly season-defining away matches at Liverpool, then Chelsea.

Sir Alex Ferguson will be even less enamoured of the Fifa Club World Cup, which will cause further disruption to United's domestic schedule in the second half of December this year.

The tournament, in which United will play two games (on the 18th and 21st), will be staged in Japan. Apart from the travelling and risk of injury, participation in the little-regarded competition will force the Red Devils to postpone another home Premier League match, against Wigan, from its 20 December slot. If the title race is as tight as last season, Ferguson could find his team playing catch-up at crucial periods in the campaign.

Had Chelsea beaten the Mancunians in Moscow, our games against Spurs this weekend and away at Everton before Christmas would have been similarly affected.

Weekend fixtures involving last season's top four

Fri	7.45pm	Man Utd v Zenit St Petersburg (UEFA Super Cup)
		(United's Premier League match against Fulham is postponed)
Sat	5.30pm	Arsenal v Newcastle
Sun	1.30pm	Chelsea v Tottenham
Sun	4pm	Aston Villa v Liverpool

Tottenham's top Premier League scorers last term were Dimitar Berbatov and Roy Keane 15 and Darren Bent 6. Chelsea's were Frank Lampard 10 and Didier Drogba 8.

 TACTICAL BRIEF
Chelsea's fluid but winger-less formation relies on the full-backs raiding forward to add width to attacks. But, as they found out against Wigan, teams are bound to have a plan to counter their tactic.

Steve Bruce went so far as to say that no team could afford not to match Chelsea's 'four, five, six' midfielders with equal numbers. He asked his attackers to drop deeper and compete the middle ground on Sunday, and it was very successful.

The Blues' midfield - admittedly all carrying injuries to varying degrees - were not as penetrative or good in possession as against Portsmouth.

Bruce also tried to 'turn' Chelsea's full-backs as quickly as possible when they were upfield and the Blues lost possession. The ball was quickly hit diagonally behind them with Wigan's forwards drifting into the space behind them, pulling centre-backs out of position to cover.

Despite Petr Cech exhibiting almost flawless handling, Wigan didn't look like much of a goal threat. Other teams will prove harder to handle. No one in the Chelsea camp will mourn the departure of Robbie Keane, scorer of some highly annoying goals against the Blues in recent years.

Spurs' performance against Sunderland last Saturday was a surprise, not least because of the starting line-up. Berbatov's absence was understandable, but deploying lethargic midfielder Didier Zokora as a right-back and Gareth Bale in left midfield were experiments that did not work.

In the second half Sunderland's workmanlike persistence found gaping holes in the home side's much-feted midfield.

Ramos likes to have two mobile holding midfielders, and Luca Modric (more typically an attacking player, perhaps) and Jermaine Jenas were there on Saturday. Expensive new signing David Bentley started in a free role behind Bent, but was later pushed onto the unfamiliar left wing, where he struggled to make an impact.

WE HAVE HISTORY

Most Chelsea fans are still smarting from last season's clashes with our great rivals from north London. Not simply that depressing Carling Cup defeat, but the damaging 4-4 draw at the Lane. In fact, since the Premier League defeat two seasons ago the bragging rights have been more evenly shared than they have for decades.

Never the less, it is nearly two decades since Spurs left Fulham Road with all three points: Chelsea are looking to extend our unbeaten run against Tottenham at Stamford Bridge to 22 games in 18 years. We have won 14 and drawn seven scoring 41 goals and conceding 16. Spurs last win here was in February 1990 in the old First Division when they won 2-1 with goals from David Howells and Gary Lineker. John Bumstead replied for Chelsea.

In 32 games between the clubs since the Premier League started Chelsea have won 20, Tottenham have won once and there have been 11 draws, Chelsea goals 62, Spurs goals 25. 

 

LAST SEASON'S CORRESPONDING MATCH

Chelsea 2 Tottenham 0

Premier League, Saturday January 12th 2008 at Stamford Bridge

 Chelsea v Tottenham in all competitions
Games played 137
Chelsea wins 58
Spurs wins 47
Draws 32

Head to head in the League at Stamford Bridge
Games played 60
Chelsea wins 29
Spurs wins 19
Draws 12

THE MAN IN THE MIDDLE
The referee is Howard Webb, England's representative at Euro 2008 where he was in charge of two group games.

 

Chelsea Manager Avram Grant.   Cech  Belletti   Alex   Carvalho    A Cole  Wright-Phillips   Makelele     Ballack (c)  J Cole   Pizarro    Malouda  Substitutes Anelka for Pizarro (57), Bridge for Malouda (84), Sidwell for Wright-Phillips (90+3)  Booked Makelele, Ballack  Scorers Belletti (18), Wright-Phillips (80) Berbatov    Keane   Malbranque     O'Hara      Boateng    Lennon  Lee   King (c)    Dawson     Chimbonda  Cerny  Manager Juande Ramos Tottenham  Substitutes Taarabt for Malbranque (58), Defoe for O'Hara (76) Kaboul for Boateng (83)  Booked Boateng, Malbranque, O'Hara, Lennon  Referee Alan Wiley Crowd 41,777  Nicolas Anelka made his debut.

CHELSEA STATS

The Blues are on the longest current unbeaten run in the Premier League of 23 (17 wins and six draws) matches since the defeat at the Emirates in December - our only loss in 33. We remain the only top flight club yet to lose a league game in 2008.

Chelsea have not lost when scoring first in the Premier League for 44 games (38 wins, six draws) since the 1-2 defeat at Tottenham in November 2006.

We are looking to extend our record unbeaten league run at Stamford Bridge to 84 games since our last defeat against Arsenal on February 21st 2004.

The Blues are unbeaten in 103 consecutive domestic matches at Stamford Bridge (if penalty shoot-outs are excluded).

We are hoping to extend our club unbeaten record at Stamford Bridge in all competitions to 70 games since our last defeat on February 22nd 2006 when Barcelona beat a ten-man Chelsea 2-1 in the Champions League. That has been our only home defeat in the last 128 games since February 2004.

Congratulations to Frank Lampard who is due to make his 250th Premier League appearance for the club and Joe Cole his 150th start in a blue shirt.

 Chelsea's last six games

Apr 30	Liverpool	H	W 3-2	CL semi-final (aet)
May 5	Newcastle	A	W 2-0
May 11	Bolton H	D	1-1
May 21	Man Utd	N	D 1-1	CL Final (lost 5-6 on pens aet)
Aug 17	Portsmouth	H	W 4-0
Aug 24	Wigan	A	W 1-0

2008/09 scorers
Deco 2, Anelka 1, J Cole 1, Lampard 1 (1 pen).

SPURS STATS
Spurs were the fifth highest scorers in the top flight last season with 66, one more than Chelsea and had the 11th best away record winning 17 from a possible 57 points with three wins at Portsmouth, Derby and Reading, eight draws and eight defeats.

 Only Birmingham, Reading, Derby and Newcastle conceded more than Tottenham's 61 goals.

 Spurs have only kept one clean sheet in the last nine outings and managed 15 in two Premier League seasons.

 Apart from the defeat at Stamford Bridge, Tottenham's other away results in the capital last term were Fulham (3-3), West Ham (1-1) and Arsenal (1-2).

 Spurs have won the League Championship twice in 1951 and 1961, one fewer than Chelsea. Their last major piece of silverware was last season's League Cup, their first since winning the same trophy in 1999.

 LAST LINE-UP

Aug 23, 2008 Sunderland (home) Lost 1-2

Tottenham are still looking for their first points following successive defeats in the first two weekends of the season.

 

Gomes

 Zokora   Woodgate    King (c)     Assou-Ekotto

 Lennon  Jenas   Modric      Bale

 Bentley

 Bent

 Substitutes
Huddlestone for Assou-Ekotto (55), Giovanni for Lennon (55)

Scorer Jenas (72)

 Sunderland scorers Richardson (55) and Cissé on his debut (83)

Tottenham's recent form has seen one win in the last nine in the Barclays Premier League. The last occasion they won maximum points away was at Derby in early February.

Spurs' last six games

Apr 19	Wigan	A	D 1-1
Apr 26	Bolton	H	D 1-1
May 3	Reading	A	W 1-0
May 11	Liverpool	H	L 0-2
Aug 16	Middlesbrough	A	L 1-2
Aug 23	Sunderland	H	L 1-2

 

2008/09 scorers
Jenas 1, own goal (Huth) 1.

 Tottenham's managers this decade

George Graham	1998-2001
Glenn Hoddle	2001-2003
David Pleat	2003-2004
Jacques Santini	2004
Martin Jol	2004-2007
Juande Ramos	October 2007 to date

TOTTENHAM IN THE PREM
Spurs are one of seven clubs to have appeared in every season in the Premier League.

               Pts Pos

1992/93 59 8th
1993/94 45 15th
1994/95 62 7th
1995/96 61 8th
1996/97 46 10th
1997/98 44 14th
1998/99 47 11th
1999/00 53 10th
2000/01 49 12th
2001/02 50 9th
2002/03 50 10th
2003/04 45 14th
2004/05 52 9th
2005/06 65 5th
2006/07 60 5th
2007/08 46 11th

NEW BOYS
Completed summer transfers

CHELSEA In: Deco (Barcelona, undisclosed), José Bosingwa (Porto, undisclosed), Fabio Paim (Sporting Lisbon, loan). Out Andriy Shevchenko (AC Milan, loan), Shaun Wright-Phillips (Man City, undisclosed), Steve Sidwell (Aston Villa, undisclosed), Claude Makelele (PSG, free), Tal Ben-Haim (Man City, undisclosed), Khalid Boulahrouz (Stuttgart, undisclosed), Hernán Crespo, (released, now Inter Milan), Anthony Grant (released, now Southend), Adrian Pettigrew (released), James Simmonds (released), Phil Younghusband (released), Per Weihrauch (retired), Claudio Pizarro (Werder Bremen, loan), Ben Sahar (Portsmouth, loan), Shaun Cummings (MK Dons, loan), Ryan Bertrand (Norwich, loan), Jimmy Smith (Sheffield Wed, loan), Jack Cork (Southampton, loan), Lee Sawyer (Southend, loan).