1. Where Chelsea concede chances
Chelsea have been extremely tough for teams to breakdown this season, but their weakness, as it has been for a while, is in their right back zone.
The reason they are vulnerable here is the deployment of Branislav Ivanovic. The Serbian is an excellent defender, but under Jose Mourinho he has licence to get forward. This sees him as a threat in attack, but his positioning leaves him vulnerable to quick transitions.
2. Chelsea creating chances
Whilst they can be exposed, Chelsea are an extremely talented side. They create chances from short; neat through balls and dribbling that has two outcomes.
The first is that it allows a runner to latch on to the through pass and get a shot away. Diego Costa and Eden Hazard very much combine in this way and their one-twos are a feature of many a Chelsea goal.
The second sees the player from the through pass in a position to provide a short cross or pull back from inside the area. This puts him closer to his target and thus the cross or squared ball is more likely to be completed.
Chelsea very much created chances in this manner in their last Premier League match with Burnley. This includes Eden Hazard’s pull back to Branislav Ivanovic after completing a mazy dribble.
3. Stopping Chelsea between the lines
Chelsea’s success comes from getting their men between the lines. They took the match at the Bridge away from us extremely quickly by doing just this.
Eden Hazard got free to play a one-two with Didier Drogba for their first.
4. Errors
The number of errors we’ve seen in our play recently has seriously increased. These are not just physical errors, but more mental ones that have seen us play poor passes and easily turnover over possession. Thursday night in Florence was an all too familiar example as Federico Fazio and Jan Vertonghen committed silly mistakes to gift La Viola the game.
It’s been an occurrence for us, with sloppy and lapse play up at Anfield in the 3-2 loss to Liverpool and in Sunday’s 2-2 draw with West Ham.
Maybe it is the number of games we’ve played this season catching up with us? Hopefully it’s just because we’ve had one eye on the Capital One Cup Final. Whatever the reason, there can be no mental meltdowns on Sunday. Chelsea are too good a side to gift goals to.
5. Dictating tempo
Whoever is in control of the tempo of this match will be key to winning it.
At the Bridge, Jose Mourinho had his side dictate the speed of play and Chelsea emerged winners. In the game at the Lane, Mauricio Pochettino wanted it to be frantic and frenzied and we won a shootout 5-3.
Mourinho will want this to be a grind, whereby his team can wear us down over the course of 90 minutes with their strength and power. Pochettino will want it to be an athletic contest, where our speed and physical stamina over for the full 90 minutes will be the deciding factor.
The game will see patches whereby each team asserts it’s control. It will be whoever makes the most of the moments when they are in the ascendancy that will emerge victorious.
Also don’t underestimate the size of the Wembley surface. Spurs have done better on the bigger pitches this season and this should also play in to the hands of our improved fitness and stamina.
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