Chelsea Draw Leaves Pochettino and Tottenham Hotspur with Plenty to Think About
It is the morning after the night before. Like with the worst of hangovers, Tottenham Hotspur's players are probably waking up wondering if they behaved as badly as they remembered.
Things got messy in Monday night's 2-2 draw with Chelsea. A result that ended Tottenham's title challenge and handed Leicester City the Premier League crown (the Foxes will be suffering from a more pleasurable kind of hangover), leaving head coach Mauricio Pochettino and his team with plenty to think about moving forward.
Harry Kane and Heung-Min Son's first-half goals had Spurs supporters believing. Their side's calculated urgency going forward looked like it might overwhelm their London rivals, an opponent they had not beaten at Stamford Bridge for 26 years.
By the end of the game, the travelling fans were left staggered by their team's subsequent collapse. Preventable goals from Gary Cahill and Eden Hazard left the home crowd roaring with delight.
The evening's early hints of players getting caught up in the excitement manifested in a near full-blown loss of shape and ill-discipline (for the latter, see below). The aggression that has served them so well in their relentless football was replaced with desperate recklessness.
It is tempting to put it down to the inexperience in this young Spurs squad (generally fielding one of the top flight's lowest-average-age teams). But then some of the worst culprits were the supposed grown-ups of the party.
Players like Toby Alderweireld and Mousa Dembele, Danny Rose and Kyle Walker—the latter three all among those booked. Men who Pochettino specifically singled out citing the balance in his squad prior to last month's 1-1 draw with Liverpool. "We are young but we are mature," he said.
"Mature" was not a word anyone would have used on Monday.
The failure of these and others, like Eric Dier and Ryan Mason, to stay composed wasted the good earlier work of their attacking colleagues. Christian Eriksen, Kane and Erik Lamela were ultimately dragged into the running brawls like the innocents whose big night out was ruined by their ill-behaved friends.
Yet, as bad as it got at times, Spurs do not deserve to be marked by the actions of one night. Their consistency and often-brilliant football up to now should not be forgotten because of how they succumbed to the occasion here.
While not defending how they reacted, Spurs' inebriation by this embarrassingly intoxicating brew was also informed by mitigating factors. Their heads were already clouded by the general public will to see Leicester seal this title, and they were egged on by Chelsea players who hardly behaved much better.
It can all serve as a warning of how not to act the next time they arrive in such a situation. And there will almost certainly be a next time for this group.
Kane is as representative as anybody of Tottenham's progress under Pochettino. They have done so well that the achievement of UEFA Champions League qualification aim is an afterthought in all of this.
While Kane's colleagues let him down on Monday night, he is well aware of how far they have all come.
Captain and goalkeeper Hugo Lloris—helpless to intervene as his charges lost the plot—is, too. Reports he is set to sign a new contract, per the Mirror's Steve Stammers, are a hopeful indicator for Spurs of the belief one of their most important players has in this project.
"It’s true we feel sad and disappointed but heads up, the season has been fantastic in the way that we have played and the principles we’ve set out," said Pochettino, per his club's official website. "All together, we can be even stronger and the future can only be fantastic."
He turned his attentions to Sunday's final home game of 2015-16 against Southampton. An immediate, albeit challenging, opportunity to show early lessons have been learned from all of this.
Spurs still have work to do to seal second place in the league ahead of Arsenal, their north London rivals who sit three points behind—the least this unexpectedly heady campaign deserves.
After last week's draw with West Bromwich Albion, this was anticipated as being their realistic target for the season's remainder. The change in ambition only altered when Leicester were held to a draw by Manchester United on Sunday.
If their impressive 4-2 win over Manchester City is anything to go by, Southampton will provide a big test of the concentration and positional discipline that failed Spurs's resistance against Chelsea.
After Monday's debacle it is not just about rectifying these to secure the points, though.
It is about reaffirming the qualities and re-establishing a general perception of this team that only Leicester have outshined this season—to begin proving their intent to never experience a night and hangover like this again.
Quotes obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.
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