PMB: Tottenham v Chelsea - history
There have been some big games between Chelsea and Tottenham in recent years and club historian Rick Glanvill and club statistician Paul Dutton recall some of those ahead of another enticing encounter this weekend...
WE HAVE HISTORY
On Sunday, Chelsea and Tottenham meet for the 51st time in the Premier League. The Blues have won 26 of the previous 50 matches and Spurs five (all at White Hart Lane in the last 11 years). Nineteen have been drawn.
The champions have won one of our past 11 Premier League visits to Tottenham. That sole win over that period was in October 2012, when goals from Gary Cahill, Juan Mata (two), and Daniel Sturridge secured a 4-2 victory.
Unlike most other Premier League clubs, Chelsea have experience of playing Tottenham at their new temporary home, with three encounters since 2012.
The first occasion was a 2012 FA Cup semi-final that started quite even. Then just before half-time, Didier Drogba shrugged off former team-mate William Gallas with grace and power and arrowed a shot out of the reach of current Blues assistant Carlo Cudicini.
Man of the match Juan Mata made it two shortly after the break and, after Gareth Bale had briefly given the north Londoners hope, a neatly clipped finish from Ramires, Frank Lampard's swirling long-range free kick, and Florent Malouda's late strike made it 5-1. Roberto Di Matteo's men went on to lift the FA Cup as well as the Champions League.
The 2015 League Cup final at the same venue brought the first silverware of Jose Mourinho's second spell at Stamford Bridge. Spurs almost struck first when a Christian Eriksen set-piece rebounded off Petr Cech's woodwork, but the outcome was never seriously in doubt after that.
Despite fielding rookie defender Kurt Zouma in central midfield for the suspended Nemanja Matic, the west Londoners dominated, though clear chances were few until shortly before the break.
Then Willian's free-kick caused chaos in the Spurs ranks and John Terry pounced to slam the ball home. The north Londoners, who had tumbled out of Europe in midweek, barely mustered a response, but it was still a relief when Cesc Fabregas found Diego Costa on the charge, and the striker's goalbound shot deflected off Kyle Walker for a 2-0 win.
The two sides' most recent Wembley meeting was just under four months ago in the last four of last season's FA Cup, a 4-2 win for Antonio Conte's champions-elect. Both coaches had rested or repurposed key players for the first semi-final match between England's top two since 1999. We took the game to Spurs and grabbed the lead twice, only to be pegged back.
Early on, Pedro's fleet footwork exposed Toby Alderweireld and the Belgian conceded a free-kick from which Willian – scourge of the Spurs – opened the scoring with a well-placed shot past an evidently surprised Hugo Lloris. Harry Kane equalised that with a clever header from Christian Eriksen's cross.
After stand-in left wing-back Heung-Min Son tumbled Victor Moses over and Willian completed from the spot, Eriksen delivered again, this time for Dele Alli.
Once Conte called his reinforcements off the bench, though, there was only likely to be one winner. The two Chelsea goals to come were both stunners: Eden Hazard skilfully working a route to goal and delivering a precision finish, then Nemanja Matic thumping a piledriver home from 25 yards.
The final score was 4-2, making the aggregate of our three meetings at Wembley since 2012 11-3, watched by a cumulative total of 261,380 people.
OUR LAST 10 AWAY LEAGUE MEETINGS AT TOTTENHAM
OUR PREMIER LEAGUE MEETINGS LAST SEASON
26 November 2016
Chelsea………..……2 Tottenham..………..1
Pedro 45 Eriksen 11
Moses 51
Att: 41,513
4 January 2017
Tottenham.……..2 Chelsea………..……0
Alli 45+1, 54
Att: 31,491
CHELSEA V TOTTENHAM IN ALL COMPETITIONS
Games played 158
Chelsea wins 67
Draws 40
Spurs wins 51
HEAD TO HEAD IN THE LEAGUE AT WHITE HART LANE
Games played 69
Chelsea wins 23
Draws 20
Spurs wins 26
HEAD TO HEAD AT WEMBLEY IN ALL COMPETITIONS
Games played 5
Chelsea wins 3
Draws 0
Spurs wins 2
Visit again todag for the final part of the briefing