Stats show area Chelsea dominated Tottenham in derby win | OneFootball

Chelsea beat Spurs 1-0 yesterday in a nice win for Enzo Maresca’s men. Their pressing was on point and they played with great energy and commitment.

Chelsea crush Spurs on long balls

Reece James celebrates a win. (Photo by Alex Pantling/Getty Images)

A glance at the stats from the game show one thing that really jumps out. While the game was very one sided in Chelsea’s favour, the stats are largely pretty equal in most regards. But there’s a huge difference in terms of one of the passing stats. While Chelsea and Spurs completed 425 and 387 passes, at a percentage completion rate of 81% to 76% respectively, the difference comes in the long balls.

Chelsea completed literally double as many – 26 to 13.

Seven of them alone came from Robert Sanchez, who was more than happy to throw or kick long to start counter attacks. Also up there were Enzo Fernandez who completed 4 of 5, including some really beautiful efforts, Wesley Fofana who had 4 of 7, and Reece James who had 3 of 3.

Contrast that to Tottenham, who had their goalkeeper top of their list with just 3 from 20. Our high press was so efficient that the opposition weren’t even able to play long balls through it. Spurs kept playing short, kept getting caught of could have been punished much worse if the Blues had been better finishing.

In other news…

Robert Sanchez was another player who had a great game, dominating in the air and keeping Spurs threat limited from set pieces. It’s part of a wider improvement in his form.

Moises Caicedo isn’t just a beast on the pitch – he’s also a really disarmingly humble and gentle fella off it, and his comments after his man of the match performance proved that once again.