The new ‘Three Point Lane’? How Chelsea turned Tottenham Hotspur Stadium into a fortress
Forget the Battle of the Bridge, the honour of the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium is on the line this Sunday. Games between Chelsea and Spurs are must watch for Premier League fans, with their two clashes per season often the most vitriolic in England. Chelsea’s trip couldn’t come at a worse time after Postecoglou confronted fansGetty And this weekend, Ange Postecoglou needs to cause another upset or risk things spiralling out of control in north London. The Australian confronted supporters last time out after a 1-0 defeat to Bournemouth made it three games without a win. With aspirations of a top four finish, Tottenham are currently well short in tenth and have shown some absolutely bizarre form in recent weeks. They’ve twice beaten champions Manchester City, once by four goals, but in between have suffered defeats to Galatasaray and newly-promoted Ipswich. Fans will certainly be hoping that at least the big game trend continues when Chelsea make the trip up to north London, but the stats show that they may well be in trouble. helsea’s five wins are the most of any visiting side since the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium has opened, and that’s certainly unusual. The Blues had just two away wins in their previous 13 trips to north London, and their new found form as seen fans dub the ground ‘Three Point Lane’ in reference to their old White Hart Lane stadium. Spurs opened their £1billion state-of-the-art stadium in April 2019, and despite it being mainly a warm welcome, things changed in December when it came to one of their rivals. Willian was the one to heat things up in Chelsea’s first trip, scoring a scorcher from range before adding another from the spot in a 2-0 win. That wasn’t all though, as is typical in this fixture, there was a red card for Heung-min Son kicking out at Antonio Rudiger. Son’s kick on Rudiger handed Chelsea an opening win at their new stadiumGetty Images - Getty And it never got any better after thatGetty Spurs would re-address the balance next time out with a penalty shoot-out win in the fourth round of the Carabao Cup, but since then Chelsea’s trips have been almost perfect. Winning four out of five, two clean sheets followed, before Spurs said goodbye to their trophy hopes for another season during the 2021/22 campaign when they were dumped out of the Carabao at the semi-final stage by that man Rudiger. A rare win came under Antonio Conte in February 2023, but in Postecoglou’s only home game against the Blues, things got as bad as they’ve ever been. Chelsea walked away 4-1 winners as Spurs shockingly ended the match with nine men. Even more surprising than that, was even at two men and two goals down for the final 35 minutes, the Australian instructed his troops to keep attacking, resulting in a humbling Nicolas Jackson hat-trick. Spurs’ chances of a top four finish took a huge blow as a result, and it was the first time their manager’s tactics came under serious fire, resulting in an intense post-match press conference. Taking blame for the defeat, Postecoglou did finally snap when asked about his tactics, saying: “Come on mate, we didn’t play well. What do you want, me to sit here and write you a dossier of where we went wrong? “Like I said, I’ll take responsibility, we were poor in the first half. I still think their [first] goal was a foul but no one cares about that. But we didn’t deserve anything more than that, and that’s on me.” That result meant that C Currently second under Enzo Maresca and finally clicking for the first time in the Todd Boehly era, another three points may well be on the way, and this time Postecoglou may not have any answers left post-match.
Forget the Battle of the Bridge, the honour of the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium is on the line this Sunday.
Games between Chelsea and Spurs are must watch for Premier League fans, with their two clashes per season often the most vitriolic in England.
And this weekend, Ange Postecoglou needs to cause another upset or risk things spiralling out of control in north London.
The Australian confronted supporters last time out after a 1-0 defeat to Bournemouth made it three games without a win.
With aspirations of a top four finish, Tottenham are currently well short in tenth and have shown some absolutely bizarre form in recent weeks.
They’ve twice beaten champions Manchester City, once by four goals, but in between have suffered defeats to Galatasaray and newly-promoted Ipswich.
Fans will certainly be hoping that at least the big game trend continues when Chelsea make the trip up to north London, but the stats show that they may well be in trouble.
helsea’s five wins are the most of any visiting side since the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium has opened, and that’s certainly unusual.
The Blues had just two away wins in their previous 13 trips to north London, and their new found form as seen fans dub the ground ‘Three Point Lane’ in reference to their old White Hart Lane stadium.
Spurs opened their £1billion state-of-the-art stadium in April 2019, and despite it being mainly a warm welcome, things changed in December when it came to one of their rivals.
Willian was the one to heat things up in Chelsea’s first trip, scoring a scorcher from range before adding another from the spot in a 2-0 win.
That wasn’t all though, as is typical in this fixture, there was a red card for Heung-min Son kicking out at Antonio Rudiger.
Spurs would re-address the balance next time out with a penalty shoot-out win in the fourth round of the Carabao Cup, but since then Chelsea’s trips have been almost perfect.
Winning four out of five, two clean sheets followed, before Spurs said goodbye to their trophy hopes for another season during the 2021/22 campaign when they were dumped out of the Carabao at the semi-final stage by that man Rudiger.
A rare win came under Antonio Conte in February 2023, but in Postecoglou’s only home game against the Blues, things got as bad as they’ve ever been.
Chelsea walked away 4-1 winners as Spurs shockingly ended the match with nine men.
Even more surprising than that, was even at two men and two goals down for the final 35 minutes, the Australian instructed his troops to keep attacking, resulting in a humbling Nicolas Jackson hat-trick.
Spurs’ chances of a top four finish took a huge blow as a result, and it was the first time their manager’s tactics came under serious fire, resulting in an intense post-match press conference.
Taking blame for the defeat, Postecoglou did finally snap when asked about his tactics, saying: “Come on mate, we didn’t play well. What do you want, me to sit here and write you a dossier of where we went wrong?
“Like I said, I’ll take responsibility, we were poor in the first half. I still think their [first] goal was a foul but no one cares about that. But we didn’t deserve anything more than that, and that’s on me.”
That result meant that C
Currently second under Enzo Maresca and finally clicking for the first time in the Todd Boehly era, another three points may well be on the way, and this time Postecoglou may not have any answers left post-match.
