Will Pochettino outsmart Antonio Conte yet again at Wembley: A tactical breakdown

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Last season, when Antonio Conte shifted to a 3-4-3 formation in September, the Blues became virtually impossible to beat. After adopting the aforesaid formation, Conte lost only 3 matches and one of them was at the hands of his Gameweek 2 rival – Tottenham Hotspur.

Flash Back:

Spurs won that match 2-0 and Mauricio Pochettino came up with a rather simple but ingenious plan to stop Chelsea in their tracks. Firstly, the Argentine mirrored a back three just like Chelsea in order to negate any kind of attacking threats that might come his way. And then he focused on unhinging Chelsea’s midfield – their powerhouse.

Pochettino used two of his wide players – Dele Alli and Christian Eriksen, to man mark the Chelsea midfield and stop them from building up an attack. The Spurs boss bought both of his wide players inside the pitch and made them shadows to N’Golo Kante and Nemanja Matic. He asked both the players to press intensively and both of them obliged. The result? Spurs successfully stopped N’Golo Kante from dictating the play.

But this was only half the battle won. When Spurs were able to get possession both Eriksen and Alli would quickly fall back into the wide areas and use the space behind the full backs. This meant that the Chelsea defensive line had to cope up with the pace from both wings as well as negate the threat centrally. But the Blues were unable to do that and managed to lose the match 2-0. Dele Alli scored both the goals for Spurs on the night and was assisted each time by Christian Eriksen.

Fast Forward:

Spurs played their opening game of the season with a back four but we have a feeling that Pochettino might switch to a back three this weekend. And given the fact that Chelsea have a seriously depleted midfield, Spurs would want to take some advantage of it.

If Bakayoko is not available – which we think he won’t be, David Luiz will have to plug the hole in midfield. And with the amount of pace that Spurs possess on the counter attack, Harry Kane and Co. can set Wembley on fire.