***Tottenham Hotspur vs Chelsea***, Premier League, Nov 1st 2025 at White Hart Lane

[Finney Is Back]

The quotes after the Monaco game were very harsh from Vicario. Correct but harsh and unusual for a 0-0 draw. There are signs the players aren’t all in on this.

The manager sets us up with a small club mentality. Trying to get a nil nil at home to an under strength team likely to finish 4th to 6th and hoping to nick a set piece. That’s sort of thing is fine at Brentford, not at THFC.

 

[BrentwoodSpur]

Wow.... Hopefully that sends a message to TF that it was unacceptable. It was a joke set up

VDV looks like he’s fuming. Not a good look from the outside looking in

 

[SteveAWOL]

Message needs to be sent to the board for the up coming window

That we need to speculate on lots more talented prospects who are all right footed and will need at least a season to adapt to the PL before we can even begin to determine whether they’re good enough to help us compete for a top 4 spot?!

 

[SissokoWasGood (BoL)]

The manager sets us up with a small club mentality. Trying to get a nil nil at home to an under strength team likely to finish 4th to 6th and hoping to nick a set piece. That’s sort of thing is fine at Brentford, not at THFC.

I agree.

I think there’s every chance that VDV and Spence were annoyed at their own performances, but they seemed fine enough to talk to each other and ignore the manager.

I would not be surprised at all if they were frustrated with Frank for being set up to play the way they did today, which is to say, without any attacking ideas whatsoever.

And I think it’s probably compounded by the fact that under the previous manager they were set up to take games to the opposition, and knew when fully fit they could do it. This probably felt embarrassing for them.

(This is not me trying to make a pro Ange post, rather trying to articulate how the contrast might feel for them, if they felt hamstrung in this system, like they knew they could do better, and kept adhering to the instructions they were given.)

 

[Mrs Vert]

Can we also pls remember we have beaten them 8 times over 400yrs, with teams better than this and we still come up short.
It's annoying but hey what's new

 

[Kandi1977]

Message needs to be sent to the board for the up coming window

You don't need a transfer window to come up with an attacking structure and a way of playing that is better, more effective and more pleasing to the eye than what we're currently being served.

 

[Glenda's Legs]

VDV looks like he’s fuming. Not a good look from the outside looking in

VDV had the captain’s armband tonight. Should not have been disappearing down the tunnel, no matter how much he was fuming.

 

[Baleforce]

You don't need a transfer window to come up with an attacking structure and a way of playing that is better, more effective and more pleasing to the eye than what we're currently being served.

I think this is one of those "pick two" situations

 

[SirPercyHotspur]

One of the most annoying things were the terrible corners and free kicks which were all totally wasted .

 

[SteveAWOL]

Wow, another manager gone

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[Glenda's Legs]

Shocking tonight. Not much else to say really.

Chavs didn’t even look that good but we were weak and toothless and devoid of any attacking intent.

Just appalling.

 

[Finney Is Back]

I didn’t see any lack of bravery. Any examples? The effort was there. In the face of their press the confidence, guile and patience was missing. No coincidence we are terrible at home.

It’s quite hard to progress the ball forward when the manager had only decided to start with 2 attacking players and 9 or 10 players are constantly behind the ball

 

[Robspur12]

I would not be surprised at all if they were frustrated with Frank for being set up to play the way they did today, which is to say, without any attacking ideas whatsoever.

They can be angry with Frank all they like but he didn't make VDV challenge for the ball weally or pass the ball poorly or make Spence turn into trouble repeatedly instead of passing or cleariing the ball. They are professional players who failed to put in a professional performance.

 

[Finney Is Back]

One of the most annoying things were the terrible corners and free kicks which were all totally wasted .

Especially when that is the only attacking tactic the negative manager has….

 

[stratnumberone]

They can be angry with Frank all they like but he didn't make VDV challenge for the ball weally or pass the ball poorly or make Spence turn into trouble repeatedly instead of passing or cleariing the ball. They are professional players who failed to put in a professional performance.

I was in North Lower today and I accept it can be hard to gauge a performance from there… however, I thought that today was the poorest I’ve seen VDV play. To be fair, they were all rubbish, but there’s a particularly high expectation of him.

 

[thfcsteff]

You know what the biggest issue was tonight: a lack of patience.

You know what the biggest issue was tonight? A total lack of plan as to create beyond horseshoeing it round and round. No wonder Spence and VdV look tinkled off, they have nowhere to other than 'lump it along the line or hoof it up the middle.

That first goal? Yes, terrible pass from Xavi, but Maresca and every PL manager knows that a right-footed LB with no obvious left-winger will have to look inside; they double harrass him in there and no-one has thought to drop deep for a short inside pass a few seconds earlier because we are not coached to play that way. So Spence ends up harried, Xavi tries to help and fudges it, VdV is backpedaling, but the whole thing does not happen if we have a system of progressing the ball which involves using the middle of the pitch sometimes.

 

[Baleforce]

I was in North Lower today and I accept it can be hard to gauge a performance from there… however, I thought that today was the poorest I’ve seen VDV play. To be fair, they were all rubbish, but there’s a particularly high expectation of him.

The goals against Everton masked a similar defensive performance last week.

He’s looked dodgy this season imo.

 

[Finney Is Back]

They can be angry with Frank all they like but he didn't make VDV challenge for the ball weally or pass the ball poorly or make Spence turn into trouble repeatedly instead of passing or cleariing the ball. They are professional players who failed to put in a professional performance.

No but he did set them up feebly and defensively as though we were a league 2 team playing a premier league team in the cup!

 

[Finney Is Back]

Can we also pls remember we have beaten them 8 times over 400yrs, with teams better than this and we still come up short.
It's annoying but hey what's new

And we’ll never beat them again if we set up in such a cowardly, small club way.

 

[thfcsteff]

Of course it wasn't.

The attitude of the Chelsea players was top draw.

Bloody Spence did my head in today, just pass the ball, stop trying to beat the man every time because you believe your own hype.

When played in the right he was tight. When we, as a football club, settle for a right-footed LB, we are causing ourselves problems. Who was he meant to pass to today? Who was arriving looking a short pass inside? Who was making any sort of dynamic move ahead of him in wide areas? IF you're going to play a right-footed LB, you HAVE to accoomodate the clear limitations which naturally occur. Instead, he was left to sort it out himself every time.