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We’ve always had very difficult games against Tottenham, but they never quite gave us the sort of trouble we suffered from our fiercest rivals, Arsenal.
This, in part, was always as a result of the fact that the Gunners were always considered a stronger team. They’ve always had big name players, and that made our match ups interesting, at least, on paper.
Lately, our fixtures against Arsenal have been one-sided; lacking the sort of suspense and unpredictability of a true derby match. They have won about 3 or 4 of our last 10 meetings, while we’ve gotten the bigger share of victories. But it’s not about the win ratios, it’s the fact that they’re becoming easier to beat, and matches against them have little to offer in terms of excitement and on field competition; Tottenham seems to be offering that now.
Our fixtures against Tottenham over the past few years have been nerve-racking, unsettling, and exciting at the same time. They offer more competition on the pitch, and they’re tougher to beat, even with lesser names than Arsenal and Chelsea.
On Sunday, we saw another terrifying display from them, and if not for our resilience and experience, the story might have been different. They caused us troubles from start to finish, and had us sweat for the victory. Our fixtures with them have always been like that; a direct opposite of meetings with Arsenal. They definitely deserve more credit than they’re getting, and I think they’ve grown into a far bigger rival for us than Arsenal. We have beaten them in 2 consecutive games, but those victories didn’t come easy. They were hard-fought, and might have been easily lost. We need to give them more respect, and perhaps take them more seriously than we ever did.
That said, I want to congratulate every true Blue out there on the monumental victory from Sunday. It wasn’t easy, but then, that’s Chelsea. We somehow manage to always win tough ties like that one. The odds were against us, and conditions didn’t favor us, but we went out there, and played our hearts out. After the unfortunate start vs Burnley, we desperately needed this, and I’m glad it came. Now, we keep going, and hopefully, it only gets better from here on.
