Tottenham v Chelsea: Premier League – live | Premier League

53 min: Spurs substitution Another injury for Spurs. Brennan Johnson has pulled something and is replaced by former Chelsea forward Timo Werner. Johnson was able to walk off without obvious pain so Spurs will hope it’s not too serious.

52 min … for about 10 seconds. Chelsea win the ball back and Fernandez shapes a beautiful curler from 25 yards that goes this far wide of the far post. As the ball beat Forster’s dive I expected the net to ripple.

51 min Spurs break four on four, only for Kulusevski to flick his cross too close to Sanchez. About 2.4 seconds later, at the other end, Sancho’s excellent low cross rolls through the six-yard box and reaches Neto beyond the far post. He screws it back and Spurs clear…

50 min Chelsea have started the second half brilliantly, with Cucurella heavily involved. He’s almost plying as a No10 when Chelsea have the ball.

48 min: Outstanding save by Forster! Sancho zips infield from the left and gives the ball to the underlapping Cucurella. He reverses a superb return pass to Sancho, who pokes an early shot across goal from seven yards. Forster, with almost no reaction time, throws out his left hand to divert it behind for a corner. That’s a wonderful stop.

Replays show Sancho’s shot took a slight deflection, though that doesn’t change the quality of the save.

47 min Chelsea have also swapped their centre-backs, a response to Solanke giving Badiashile a bit of a chasing in the first half.

46 min Chelsea begin the second half. Malo Gusto has come on for Romeo Lavia, with Caicedo moving into midfield. Chelsea say it’s tactical, which is a surprise as Lavia was extremely good in the first half.

Apparently VAR said Kulusevski’s elbow on Lavia was “accidental”. The Sky Sports pundits, Paul Merson and Jamie Redknapp, aren’t convinced.

Yeah, accidental.

Here’s something to bring you down during the half-time break. No, not Wilson’s prose – I mean the stuff he’s writing about.

That was fantastic entertainment. I would summarise the first half but if I do I’ll miss the start of the second. And I need the [redacted].

45+2 min Lavia is down after a weird tackle from Kulusevski, who tried to win the ball on the floor but caught Lavia on the side of the head with a pointy elbow. This time a VAR check goes in Spurs favour – once again the verdict is that it ‘lacks excessive force’.

There’s a world – probably last season – in which both Caicedo and Kulusevski are sent off.

45+1 min A lovely turn from Solanke, who is quietly having a stormer, sparks a dangerous Spurs break. For once Kulusevski undoes the good work by drilling a cross too close to Sanchez.

45 min Two minutes of added time. Any chance of making it two hours?

44 min Yet another Chelsea corner. I’m not sure what’s being thrown at Palmer and Fernandez. Presumably nothing vicious but it’s still pretty tedious. File under Grown Men, Eh, or fugme for short.

42 min Every time Chelsea win a corner, the taker is bombarbed with rubbish from the crowd. “What are these stewards doing?” shrieks Jamie Carragher. “There’s three of them behind Cole Palmer watching them throwing stuff.”

41 min Chelsea are having some good possession now. Palmer turns into space and plays a sliderule pass through to Jackson, whose run between the centre-back is perfectly timed. Dragusin charges back to make a brilliant sliding block tackle and deflect Jackson’s shot behind for a corner.

Spurs have got to do something to address Palmer, who is having a field day between the lines.

38 min That Solanke chance came from a poor pass from Sanchez, though at least he redeemed himself.

Meanwhile, Jackson exchanges passes with Neto and screws a shot on the turn that deflects behind for a corner.

37 min At the other end Palmer’s low ball into the six-yard box is cleared desperately by the off-balance Van de Ven.

35 min: Two more chances for Spurs! Son’s corner is headed off the top of the bar by Sarr. Moments later, Son’s low cross is forced towards goal by the off-balance Solanke and saved by Sanchez.

Can Spurs play Chelsea every week? This is wonderful!

33 min: No red card “What?!” says Jamie Carragher on Sky Sports. “Have I missed something there?”

I don’t think Caicedo was even booked. Sarr was being challenged by Lavia and then poked the ball away from Caicedo, whose attempted tackle turned into a studs-to-the-shin challenge.

Apparently the VAR team decided there wasn’t excessive force and therefore the on-field decision stands. He’s pretty lucky, I think, though I’d like to see it in real time to be sure. We’ve only seen slow-motion replies.

33 min Caicedo crumps Sarr on the shin and could be in a bit of trouble. It was miles over the ball.

32 min: Brilliant double save from Forster! Palmer is found in space, 25 yards from goal, and that always spells trouble. He hammers a low drive across goal that is beaten away superbly by Forster, plunging to his left. The rebound comes to Neto, who makes just enough room to reverse a near-post shot that is kicked away by Forster. That was a really good save too as he had to change direction.

31 min Unless the referee Anthony Taylor thought Sarr was trolling Cucurella by putting him back on the deck, in which case it’s clear ungentlemanly conduct.

30 min Sarr is booked for tripping Cucurella. It was a foul but a yellow card is really harsh.

29 min Free-kick to Chelsea 25 yards from goal, too wide for a shot. Fernandez overhits his ball to the far post and that’s the end of that.

27 min My colleague Daniel Harris poijnts out that Gary Neville knows how Cucurella feels after his shocker against Vasco da Gama in 2000. Paul Scholes, who missed the trip through injury, sent Neville a pithy, sympathetic text after the game, which read: ‘Fiasco da Gama’.

24 min: Just wide! Solanke turns Badiashile superbly just past the halfway line and plays a return pass to Son in the inside-left channel. He scurries into the area, moves inside Colwill and whips a trademark curler towards the top corner on the far side. Sanchez is beaten and the ball flashes just wide.

23 min This is glorious entertainment. Chelsea break three on a three after a stunning pass from Neto in his own area, but the last man Udogie makes a vital tackle on Jackson.

22 min Replays suggest that pass from Fernandez wasn’t touched by a Spurs player. Palmer fresh-aired the shot and the ball hit his standing leg. Bizarre.

21 min: Great chance for Palmer! Brilliant football from Chelsea again. Jackson, on the left side of the area, flicks the ball behind his standing leg to the overlapping Palmer. He gets his head up and picks out Palmer, who misses his kick eight yards from goal! That must have taken a nick off a Spurs defender; otherwise I can’t understand why he miskicked it.

Spurs break and Lavia is booked for a foul on Kulusevski.

20 min Almost another chance for Chelsea. They work the ball neatly through midfield, with Fernandez playing in the overlapping Sancho. His left-foot cross towards Jackson is overhit.

Sancho received the ball on the left touchline and zipped infield with purpose, roughly 20 yards from goal. He ran across Porro and then Dragusin before clipping a brilliant low drive across Forster. It hit the inside of the far post and ricocheted into the net.

That’s a beautiful goal and a timely reminder of a talent which, though unfulfilled, is unique in the English game.

Oh-hoo we’ve got a game on here. Jadon Sancho has just rolled back the years to score a fantasic goal!

17 min We’ve seen players slip and concede goals before, most famously against Chelsea, but I can’t remember it happening twice to the same player in the same game. And certainly not in the first 11 minutes.

16 min “We, Chelsea fans, are on unfamiliar grounds,” says Krishnamoorthy V. “Did you just mention title race/title decider in your preamble? Please don’t jinx it. From desolate lands to a Cole Palmer XI to this unrecognizable winning machine is a transformation few saw coming. To be back in the top four (with City out of the top 4) is heady stuff indeed. Merry Christmas.”

I should stress I don’t think you can win it, but there are certain parallels with Antonio Conte’s first season. Even down to a 0-2 scoreline at Spurs!

14 min: Spurs substitution Cristian Romero’s return lasted less than 15 minutes. He’s pulled something – I think it was when he did that needless flick behind his standing leg – and is replaced by Radu Dragusin. The poor guy has his shirt over his face and looks devastated.

13 min Udogie drives just wide from the left edge of the six-yard box, though I’m pretty sure there was an offside in the build-up. Pretty sure but not certain as it’s hard to keep up with all this.

12 min After the goal Cucurella ran straight over to the touchline to change his footwear, shrugging his shoulders as if it was somebody else’s fault.

Imagine the [redacted]-eating grin on Gary Neville’s face right now.

Cucurella slipped again, just outside the area on the left. Spurs worked the ball infiel to Kulusevski, who ran across the line of the area and then reversed a shot towards the near post. It wasn’t particularly well struck but it went through the legs ofa defender and could not have been more precise.

Whether it’s Jekyll or Hyde, he’s rampant!

7 min Romero produces an indulgent and extremely risky flick inside his own area. He gets away with it in terms of keeping possession but he looks like he’s given himself a twinge.

Chelsea were building up just short of the halfway line when Colwill played a square pass to Cucurella. He slipped, allowing Johnson to nick possession and charge down the right. Johnson kept going and then crossed to the near post, where Solanke made a brilliant run across Colwill and stretched to poke the ball into the net. That net was empty because Sanchez had dalready dived for the cross, thinking Solanke couldn’t reach it.

Solanke was so sharp there, both in his movement and the decisiveness of the finish.

Dominic Solanke scores against his old club after a slip from Marc Cucurella.

4 min Chelsea win a corner on the left. Palmer has to wait while Spurs fans throw a few things towards him. Eventually he takes it short, gets it back in and whips in a dangerous cross that is fractionally behind the leaping Colwill at the far post. His header flies across the other side of the field and is collected by Neto. The end.

3 min “Shouldn’t that be Spursy and Hyde?” says Joe Pearson. “Since Jekyll was sort of a milquetoast? Just asking.”

Are you suggesting I haven’t read Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1886 Gothic horror novella and am throwing literary references around willy-nilly without knowing what I’m talking about. Because you’d be right.

1 min A bad ball from Badiashile – a Benoit balls-up, if you’re a Goldie Lookin’ Chain fan – goes straight to Kulusevski 30 yards out. He’s slightly indecisive by his standards, eventually playing a pass outside to Johnson. His cross is deflected behind for a corner, from which nothing eventuates.

1 min Spurs kick off from right to left as we watch.

“Caicedo will invert in possession, playing next to Lavia,” says our man Jacob Steinberg. “Fernandez pushes on and it becomes a 3-2-5.”

The way we describe formations is outdated, isn’t it? I know this sounds a pretentious but you really need to list two formations – one with and without the ball. <Two Banks> Ideally 4-4-2 and 4-4-2 </Two Banks>

A reminder of the teams

Spurs (4-3-3) Forster; Pedro Porro, Romero, Van de Ven, Udogie; Kulusevski, Bissouma, Sarr; Johnson, Solanke, Son.
Substitutes: Austin, Reguilon, Dragusin, Spence, Maddison, Gray, Bergvall, Werner, Lankshear.

Chelsea (4-2-3-1) Sanchez; Caicedo, Badiashile, Colwill, Cucurella; Fernandez, Lavia; Neto, Palmer, Sancho; Jackson.
Substitutes: Jorgensen, Disasi, Adarabioyo, Gusto, Dewsbury-Hall, Veiga, Madueke, Felix, Nkunku.

Referee Anthony Taylor.

Enzo Maresca’s thoughts

Tottenham are a very good team with good players, a good squad and a good manager. Today they have Romero and Van de Ven, and for sure they are going to do well.

[On the chance to go within four points of Liverpool] It’s an opportunity because we can improve and these kinds of games tell us [how they can improve]. For me it’s no more than that. Our focus isn’t about Liverpool and City, it’s about us and how we can improve.

Ange Postecoglou’s pre-match thoughts

It’s a welcome boost for us [to have Romero and Van de Ven back]. We thought Micky would return next Thursday but he trained really well; both of them were really keen to play.

We’ve been in this position before when we’ve got a good result against a top side [after some poor results]. Irrespective, it’s a big game: it’s a derby, they’re in a good place and it’s a great test for us. Here at home, when we play our football, we’re hard to stop.

Having that energy with the fans at home can really help give you an edge. Sometimes we have to play our part too – we have to get them excited. Hopefully we can start the game well and put Chelsea on the back foot.

In an entirely precedented development, I was a bit dim when I looked at Chelsea’s team. Moises Caicedo, not Romeo Lavia, will start at right-back – partly to take good care of Son Heung-min, partly because he played there against Aston Villa last weekend and I definitely knew that and you can’t prove otherwise.

Chelsea (4-2-3-1) Sanchez; Caicedo, Badiashile, Colwill, Cucurella; Fernandez, Lavia; Neto, Palmer, Sancho; Jackson.
Substitutes: Jorgensen, Disasi, Adarabioyo, Gusto, Dewsbury-Hall, Veiga, Madueke, Felix, Nkunku.

A win today would move Chelsea within four points of Liverpool, albeit having played a game more. Who knows: Chelsea v Liverpool on 3 May could be an unlikely title decider.

There aren’t too many worries on that score

It’s already been a good day for Spurs and Chelsea, with their beloathed Arsenal’s title chances suffering a blow at Craven Cottage. These are the results from the 2pm games.

• Fulham 1-1 Arsenal

• Ipswich 1-2 Bournemouth

• Leicester 2-2 Brighton

Ange Postecoglou is able to pick Spurs’ best back four, with Pedro Porro, Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven all returning. Archie Gray, Radu Dragusin and Ben Davies drop out. The return of Son Heung-min is bad news for James Maddison, whose topsy-turvy season continues with a return to the bench. Dejan Kulusevski will move into midfield.

Enzo Maresca has made seven changes, and it looks like Romeo Lavia will play at right-back. The four players who started the 5-1 win at Southampton are the unrotatables: Marc Cucurella, Moises Caicedo, the in-form Enzo Fernandez and Cole Palmer.

Spurs (4-3-3) Forster; Pedro Porro, Romero, Van de Ven, Udogie; Kulusevski, Bissouma, Sarr; Johnson, Solanke, Son.
Substitutes: Austin, Reguilon, Dragusin, Spence, Maddison, Gray, Bergvall, Werner, Lankshear.

Chelsea (possible 4-2-3-1) Sanchez; Lavia, Badiashile, Colwill, Cucurella; Fernandez, Caicedo; Neto, Palmer, Sancho; Jackson.
Substitutes: Jorgensen, Disasi, Adarabioyo, Gusto, Dewsbury-Hall, Veiga, Madueke, Felix, Nkunku.

Referee Anthony Taylor.

So, are Chelsea in this title race or what? We’ll have a better idea after today’s game, a really tricky/surprisingly easy trip to Tottenham Hotpsur Stadium.

The reason for the two options is the recent form of their opponents. The good news for Tottenham fans is that their team is no longer Spursy. The bad news is that they’ve become Jekyll and Spursy, capable of humiliating Manchester’s finest with exhilarating football on a good day or losing to, well, pretty much anyone on a bad day.

Ange Postecoglou’s row with an entitled empathy void at Bournemouth has increased the scrutiny ahead of today’s game, and his love affair with Spurs is starting to feel a bit Blue Valentine. Let’s hope not: as a neutral, Postecoglou’s team – and his repeated pleas for maturity in a drainingly infantile culture – add so much to the Premier League.

So do Enzo Maresca’s Chelsea. It helps having Cole Palmer, sure, but so far he’s done a pretty remarkable. Chelsea’s only defeats have been to Manchester City (pre-slump) and Liverpool and they’re already nine points better off than they were at the same stage last season. Just as importantly, given the nature of Chelsea FC in the 21st century, there has been almost no noise.

What Big Ange would give for a bit of peace and quiet. The best way to achieve that, now and forever, is to win football matches.

Kick off 4.30pm.