How Chelsea’s press smothered Spurs – the perfect illustration of exploiting weakness
Summarise
Ahmed Walid
In the Premier League, if you are having difficulties in a certain phase of play, the top teams will always punish you.
This season, under Thomas Frank, Tottenham Hotspur have been experiencing some issues when progressing the ball up the pitch, leaving them overly dependent on
long passes from Pedro Porro and Cristian Romero.
Despite a glimpse of positivity in some of Spurs’ recent away trips, Chelsea’s high press smothered them and exploited their ball-progression problems.
“The high pressure they came with, I don’t think we solved it well enough, even though we worked on it,” said Frank after Chelsea’s 1-0 victory against his side.
Chelsea’s press started from a lopsided 4-3-3, with Pedro Neto focusing on Micky van de Ven and Alejandro Garnacho keeping an eye on Porro. In midfield, Reece James and Enzo Fernandez marked Rodrigo Bentancur and Joao Palhinha, but the orchestrator of the press was Joao Pedro.
The Brazil centre-forward started centrally and harried Kevin Danso when Guglielmo Vicario played the ball to his right centre-back. Joao Pedro pressed Danso from an angle that prevented the latter from going back to his goalkeeper, locking Tottenham down their right side.
There, Moises Caicedo and Marc Cucurella were marking Pape Matar Sarr and Mohammed Kudus, while Garnacho, James and Fernandez’s pressing roles limited Danso’s passing options.
One of Tottenham’s solutions was Xavi Simons’ narrow position in midfield, but Malo Gusto tracked his movement when the ball was on the far side.
In the above example, Caicedo intercepts Danso’s pass to Sarr, but Palhinha wins the loose ball and squares it to Simons.
The Netherlands midfielder fails to control the ball and James wins it back. However, it’s important to notice Gusto’s pressing role which puts him in a position that prevents Simons from overloading the centre of the pitch.
In another example, Joao Pedro presses Danso from an angle that prevents him from going back to Vicario, while Garnacho, Fernandez and James are marking Porro, Palhinha and Bentancur.
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Sarr drops to provide a passing option, but Caicedo can comfortably press him because Chelsea are covering the other choices. When Sarr plays the ball to Porro, the options are still limited because Joao Pedro is blocking the pass back to Danso, Cucurella is tight on Kudus, and Gusto is tracking Simons’ movement to defend the switch of play.
Porro tries to play the ball forward, but Garnacho’s block puts Joao Pedro in a one-v-one situation.
Chelsea’s out-of-possession approach varied when Tottenham were in a position to build down their left side.
With Neto pressing Van de Ven, Wesley Fofana had to push up and mark Simons to free Gusto. This way, Chelsea’s right-back can press Djed Spence without worrying about Simons’ narrow position.
Here, Gusto realises that Tottenham can circulate the ball towards their left side, with Simons in position to attack the space behind Fernandez and James, who are pressing higher up the pitch.
Gusto signals to Fofana to pick up Simons, before he dashes towards Spence as Tottenham circulate the ball towards the left side. By the time the ball reaches Van de Ven, Fofana is in position to track Simons and prevent him from overloading the midfield.
Meanwhile, Gusto is free to press Spence, who doesn’t have a clear passing option.
Palhinha tries to attack the space down the left wing, but Chelsea’s man-to-man locking means that James can track him and intercept the pass.
The most impressive thing about Chelsea’s press against Tottenham was that they covered the majority of Tottenham’s solutions.
Caicedo’s profile and pressing awareness meant that he can play a hybrid role depending on how Spurs were going to build up: jumping up to man-mark Sarr if Tottenham wanted to combine and defending the left side zonally if they went direct.
In this example, Chelsea’s press is operating as normal, but Caicedo drops to defend the second ball when Danso goes long towards Kudus. Unfortunately, it falls to Palhinha and Sarr is in position to attack the space, but Trevoh Chalobah is covering the depth and stops the attack.
Chelsea could afford this pressing approach when Tottenham went direct because their left-side press constantly left Spence unmarked, providing them with a free centre-back.
The reason Chelsea’s press differed from one side to another — man-marking on the right, and hybrid down the left — is because Tottenham are more likely to go direct through Danso, Romero or Porro.
Here, Enzo Maresca’s side are pressing down the left with Caicedo maintaining a distance from Simons. The Ecuador midfielder’s acceleration means that he can cover Simons if Porro goes short, while being in position to support the defence if Tottenham’s right-back went direct.
Porro tries to play a long pass towards Kudus and Richarlison, who are marked by Cucurella and Chalobah, but Caicedo intercepts it, with Fofana acting as the safety net in the back.
“The performance was very good on the ball and off the ball,” said Maresca after the match. “For sure, the way we tried to press was very important, but I also think our game against Liverpool off the ball was a top game.
“If you want to be close to the top, you need to be defensively solid.”
Maresca’s side prevented Tottenham from progressing the ball throughout the match, and restricted them to three shots worth 0.05 expected goals (xG) — Spurs’ lowest xG in a Premier League game since 2012-13.
The high press from Chelsea was a perfect illustration how, at the top level of the Premier League, weaknesses are exploited.
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