Chelsea vs Tottenham Hotspur – Capital One Cup Final – Preview

Here it is, the match we’ve all been waiting for, the match that could define our season- the Capital One Cup Final.

On the day, nothing else matters except victory. I don’t care if we play horribly, I don’t care if vital incidents are dubious, I don’t care who scores- as long as we win this cup, you can bet every Tottenham Hotspur fan far and wide won’t care either.

Of course, we can’t head into a game of such magnitude hoping and expecting us to win by virtue of fortune. The matter of reality is we’ve been awful since our North London derby victory.

Unlike when our red neighbours usually tend to turn into Bayern Munich upon playing us for the second time round, we’ve instead gone backwards. The team seems lethargic after 45 minutes, and the players don’t seem to press as much. If we’re to stand any chance against Chelsea on Sunday, we must look at how we saw off the Blues back on New Year’s Day.

That day, almost everything went to plan. We pressed, we conquered, and, unlike the Tottenham of late, we took the chances we had. Chelsea feared us, and not because we stuck every man behind the ball hoping for a lucky break. We can beat Chelsea, just not if we play like we have done recently.

On Thursday, we rued several missed chances (including that one), and were undone by a tactically-superior Fiorentina side. Whilst we should give credit to Vincenzo Montella for knowing to hit us hard in the second half of each leg, it doesn’t excuse the shambles of our performance. The conceded goals could be credited as individual errors, but we still didn’t trouble the Viola enough to score the goal we desperately needed.

If we lose, you can bet the majority of our fan base will blame the Thursday-Sunday schedule, but really, after such a dismal performance, you’d think Sunday’s showing would be a whole lot better. Thankfully, the team stayed in Florence overnight and trained there on Friday, allowing the impact of travelling to be reduced.

In spite of our 5-3 January win, our record vs Chelsea isn’t great (to say the least):

• We’ve won once in our last 11 meetings with the Blues
• Tottenham have triumphed in this fixture just 6 times since the turn of the century, whereas Chelsea have claimed victory 22 times
• The last time we met at Wembley, Chelsea demolished Spurs 1-5, in a game that swung on an incorrect goal decision
• However, in this exact same fixture in 2008, Jonathan Woodgate scored an extra-time header to win us the League Cup 2-1
• We’ve beaten Chelsea twice out of the three times we’ve met at Wembley
• Spurs have prevailed in the last two League Cup meetings- in the final in 2008, and the semi-finals in 2002
• Our overall win percentage vs Chelsea stands at 48.2 (sorry to sound like Tim Sherwood)

In terms of team news, the only known absentees come from the Chelsea camp, as Nemanja Matic misses out through suspension, and John Obi Mikel has a knee injury. There’s a clean bill of health for Tottenham, so we will play our strongest team. But what exactly is our strongest team?

As much as I think Michel Vorm is a good keeper, we must start Hugo Lloris if we’re to stand a chance of winning. Hugo is world class, and of a similar calibre to Chelsea stopper Thibaut Courtois, usually guaranteeing us one or two fewer goals conceded. Vorm kicked up a fuss when he, as the first choice goalkeeper at Swansea City, didn’t start the 2013 League Cup final over ‘cup-keeper’ Gerhard Tremmel- he can’t have it both ways.

Our strongest back four consists of Kyle Walker, Eric Dier, Jan Vertonghen and Danny Rose. In midweek, Federico Fazio showed his lack of concentration and pace, costing us a goal in Florence. Whilst Jan cost us the second goal, he remains our strongest centre back, and must prove to us why that’s still the case at Wembley. On the right, Walker is currently the only viable candidate to start, and Danny Rose is currently far superior to Ben Davies, especially in our system.

In the pivot, Nabil Bentaleb and Ryan Mason should continue their fruitful partnership. In our January win over Chelsea, Mousa Dembele replaced the injured Mason and went on to have one of his greatest games in lilywhite, retaining the ball excellently. However, on Thursday, lethargy was a real problem, and this is usually solved by Mason, so I expect him to get the nod.

In front of them, there could be a place for Dembele. Though the Belgian is usually detrimental to our whole system, slowing down the pace of the game and retaining the ball could help us. If Pochettino decides to start in our default shape, then it will most likely be Erik Lamela, Christian Eriksen and Nacer Chadli starting. Lamela has come under criticism all season, but Poch’s persistence to play him shows there is ability within our Argentine winger, even if it’s frustrated us so far. Our ‘Midfield Dynamite’ has been out of sorts since the North London derby, but then again, much of the team has too. On the left, Nacer Chadli will be relishing another pgysical battle with Branislav Ivanovic- Chadli was one of our key men in the 5-3 victory.

Up top, Harry Kane will look to firmly write his name into Tottenham folklore. The academy graduate bagged a double against the Blues back in January, and has since scored vital goals against London rivals Arsenal and West Ham United- a match winning performance could top the lot.

Winning this tie could reignite the glory days. We look a promising side under Pochettino, and winning today will mean winning a trophy and more.

Predicted XI: Lloris; Walker, Dier, Vertonghen, Rose; Bentaleb, Mason; Lamela, Eriksen, Chadli; Kane