Spurs have a stronger defence than Arsenal.
But Vertonghen and Aldeweireld are both injured now.
Attacking with seven or eight players is risky when you lose the ball and your full backs are 70 yards from your goalkeeper.
This is why Pochettino signed Victor Wanyama from his old club,Southampton. The Kenyan is a warrior who beefed up the Spurs midfield and you need that in such a physical league.
Interestingly, the manager says Wanyama’s main quality is that he knows where to be.
Of course Tottenham depend too much on Dele Alli and Harry Kane, but many successful teams are like that.
After six league games Man City had 18 points, while Spurs had 14 and were second in the table.
Then City went to White Hart Lane on the first weekend of October and were outrun & outmuscled. and beaten 2-0.
When Spurs are near full strength,they are very hard to play against,difficult to contain.
That Spurs game was a big wake-up call for a Citeh side that seemed to have shed its decadence and had been now flying under their innovative new manager.
In the return fixture keeper Hugo Lloris made two blunders, gifting City two goals, although Sane’s was made possible by a crafty little handball.
But Spurs battled back to earn a 2-2 draw.
We have seen that Liverpool and Man City lack the defensive solidity to win the league.
Liverpool can press and score four goals but they can’t defend.
Klopp and Guardiola will need two more windows to get that right, if they ever do.
Chelsea are different because they’re more reliable, more professional.
On Saturday I backed Chelsea to score first, thought about it, backed them again to score first.
Then I watched a bit of the game and had a third punt: Chelsea/Chelsea. To be leading at half- time and full-time.
Unlike Arsenal, Chelsea know how to mix it up.
They almost scored after 13 seconds when David Luiz launched a mighty pass down Route 1 and a defender headed out to Diego Costa, who fired his shot a yard wide.
When Moses hit a low cross into the box, cutting it back away from the goal, Costa was well placed to sidefoot firmly inside the far stick for 1-0 in 90+6 minutes.
A horrifying clash of heads delayed half time by nine minutes and Ryan Mason needed emergency brain surgery.
In 81, sub Cesc Fabregas flighted a perfect free-kick that allowed Gary Cahill to head in from three yards.
So, for me, Chelsea 2 Hull 0 was much more convincing than Arsenal 2 Burnley 1.
Burnley is a game I’ve forgotten already.
The only thing I’ll remember is the supercool winning penalty by Sanchez and a call from a friend who is a referee. He said, “How can he give a penalty for that? How can he give a penalty for that?”
And Koscielny was offside, even Thierry said that on Sky.
On the BBC, Keown said he was “clearly offside.”
We’ll know more when Chelsea play Arsenal on Saturday, February 4th.