Tottenham and Mauricio Pochettino had Chelsea's number at White Hart Lane, but do they at Wembley?

Mauricio Pochettino's side have always struggled when at the national stadium

Chelsea have typically had the better of Spurs at Wembley (Getty)

Tottenham vs Chelsea has always been one of English football’s greatest rivalries, but it has assumed a new relevance during the three years of Mauricio Pochettino’s tenure.

His Spurs team have recorded two of their greatest ever wins over Chelsea, both at White Hart Lane, both in early January, both springing a surprise over a team who went on to win the title.

Those two wins alone might suggest Pochettino has got the edge on Chelsea, and he certainly knows their weaknesses. But some of his worst days have come up against Chelsea too.

Chelsea beat Spurs to the League Cup in 2015, ended their title charge in 2016, and their FA Cup run in 2017. When it matters most, and especially at Wembley, Spurs lose their edge. When the teams meet there again on Sunday, Spurs will have to do better to avoid the same failings.

1 January 2015, Tottenham 5-3 Chelsea

It was just the 20th league game of Pochettino’s Tottenham era when Chelsea came to White Hart Lane, heading for the title. But Pochettino was the first manager to expose Chelsea’s fragility and their flaws.

That Spurs line-up had plenty of players who Pochettino has now moved beyond: Federico Fazio, Nabil Bentaleb, Ryan Mason, Andros Townsend and Nacer Chadli. But they played with the speed and energy that has characterised Spurs over the last three years.

Even after going 1-0 down Tottenham continued to throw everything at Chelsea. Pochettino sensed that the midfield base of Nemanja Matic and Cesc Fabregas was not as strong as it first looked, and provided no real protection for a slow defence.

All of a sudden Spurs were 3-1 up at half-time and even when Mourinho threw on Ramires he could not stem the flow. Kane spun Matic to fire in the fourth and Chadli, whose direct running had shredded Chelsea, scored the fifth. The 5-3 scoreline was a triumph for Spurs’ focused energy over Mourinho’s more static football.

At the time it felt like an outlier, as Chelsea ground their way to the title. But in truth they were never the same again. Chelsea started the next season in a spin, and before Christmas, less than one year after the 5-3, Mourinho was sacked.

1 March 2015, Chelsea 2 – 0 Tottenham Hotspur

But before that famous Chelsea collapse they did win two trophies, the first of which came against Spurs, at Wembley, just two months after the 5-3.

Jose Mourinho likes to say that finals are not to play, but to win, and after being exposed at White Hart Lane he did not want the same thing to happen again. So Kurt Zouma and Ramires were drafted into midfield and that fragile 4-2-3-1 was replaced by a more solid 4-3-3. Chadli, Eriksen and Kane did not have the same room to operate in, and John Terry and Gary Cahill were better protected.

Chelsea won the League Cup at the expense of Spurs with a clinical performance (Getty)

Chelsea did what they had to, scoring from two deflections either side of half-time before closing out the second half. Spurs never looked like getting near them, and Pochettino later admitted his team’s first final had come too soon for them.

It showed what is still true now: that there is a difference between Spurs on a good day, and Spurs on a big day. That they cannot always transfer the power they play with at White Hart Lane to Wembley. And that the final step to success is the hardest.

4 January 2017, Tottenham 2-0 Chelsea

Two years after the 5-3 Spurs welcomed Chelsea to White Hart Lane for the final time. Antonio Conte’s side had won a record-equalling 13 straight Premier League games and were heading to win their title back.

Six months earlier, of course, Spurs’ own title run had ended at Stamford Bridge. They lost their heads, a 2-0 lead, and with it any chance of catching Leicester City, to Chelsea’s obvious glee.

But this time Spurs made no mistake. Chelsea had out-thought the whole league with their 3-4-3 but Pochettino was the first man to crack it, switching to his own 3-4-2-1. His wing-backs, Danny Rose and Kyle Walker, out-ran their counterparts. Mousa Dembele and Victor Wanyama controlled the midfield. Christian Eriksen dropped in to help out when he needed to, out-numbering N’Golo Kante and the unfortunate Matic. Dele Alli was unleashed to run on beyond Kane.

Dele Alli was the star as Spurs ended Chelsea's winning run (Getty)

Spurs won the game by scoring the same goal twice in quick succession: Walker to Eriksen to Alli, bounding in at the far post to head in. Spurs knew precisely which incision to make. After those goals they saw out the win with what looked like remarkable ease and Chelsea never looked like getting back into the game. Pochettino was delighted with how his team showed character, fought, and “suffered” when they needed to.

What stood out was not just the plan but its execution, and Spurs’ calm compared to their 2016 meltdown. “This time when we went in front we did not panic,” explained Dembele afterwards. “We kept playing. That was the difference. Previous times, we changed the way we were playing, we wanted to battle. This time we kept to our game and played like adults.”

22 April 2017, Chelsea 4 – 2 Tottenham

Spurs had shown in January that they had Chelsea’s number, or at least they did at White Hart Lane. So when they met again in the FA Cup semi-final, Spurs had another chance to take a decisive step. Not quite to a trophy, but back to a final, and by beating a big team away from their own home.

Everything was set up for Spurs at Wembley, and for most of the game they played well. But they still lost 4-2.

This was a game when every minor detail went against Tottenham. One or two can be down to luck but not this many. They conceded from an error, then equalised. They conceded from another error, and equalised again. Spurs dominated the second half, but did not look like going ahead. Then Matic scored from distance and Chelsea won 4-2.

(AFP/Getty Images)

There is no doubt that Spurs were the better team, or at least the dominant team, for most of the game. But to do that and then to still lose badly showed the gap between the teams. If not in terms of quality, then in terms of nous.

Chelsea were poor in the final, and Arsenal won it, meaning they finished the season with the cup, despite ending three places and 11 points behind Spurs in the league. Which shows that quality and trophies do not always quite go hand in hand. Spurs have been very good for three years now, but good is not always enough.