Chelsea gave Tottenham 68% possession and denied them everything else

On Sunday, Chelsea employed a more extreme version of the strategy they used against Tottenham in last season’s FA Cup semi-final. The Blues allow Spurs to hold the ball, but deny them the ability to do anything with it.

The run of play and many statistics from Chelsea’s derby against Tottenham indicate a much more lopsided game than a 2-1 final. Tottenham had 68% possession, won 14 corners to Chelsea’s three, doubled the Blues’ shots and tripled the shots on target (18-9 and 6-2, respectively).

The superficial numbers paint more a picture of a Spurs victory than a Chelsea win, let alone one where Tottenham did not actually score a goal themselves. However, Chelsea were anything but lucky winners. Antonio Conte played a more effective, purposeful and extreme version of his victory over Mauricio Pochettino in the FA Cup semi-finals.

In April, Tottenham had 63% possession, took 11 corners while Chelsea had only one, and outshot the Blues 13-8. But much to Jermaine Jenas’ consternation, Chelsea still won 4-2.

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Antonio Conte deployed his make-shift XI in a 3-5-1-1 on Sunday. The three central midfielders – David Luiz, N’Golo Kante and Tiemoue Bakayoko – sat back deep on defence. This produced a Jose Mourinho-esque six-man block, which moulded itself to where Tottenham had the ball. This enabled Chelsea to let Tottenham hold the ball and take chances, but only poor chances. Very poor chances.

Most of Tottenham’s shots from the centre of the pitch came from outside the penalty area. Their shots from within the box came from wide angles. Both of these scenarios have low-probabilities of success. This was the case whether Tottenham were attacking from open play or off of their many set pieces.

Chelsea blocked six of Tottenham’s 18 shots. Cesar Azpilicueta and Andreas Christensen blocked two each, and Victor Moses and Marcos Alonso each turned back one.

Tottenham did not adjust their tactics from the previous meetings, either in their initial gameplan or as the second-half progressed. Spurs continually tried to split Chelsea’s centre-backs in the air, as Christian Eriksen, Dele Alli and Harry Kane did in the two spring games.

Chelsea had more bodies in the box, and better bodies in the air, than they did then. Andreas Christensen and Antonio Rudiger denied Tottenham the aerial passing lane. Cesar Azpilicueta cleaned up a dangerous cross from Harry Kane in the second half, as part of his overall ground control. And David Luiz’s positioning as a midfielder gave Chelsea depth in the air instead of a single back-line. As a result, the Spurs took few touches in front of Thibaut Courtois.

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Antonio Conte created another tactic – catenaccio meets Pulis-ball – while Mauricio Pochettino came in with the same old methods. As often happens, Tottenham walked away with the best numbers in every statistical column except for the only one that matters.

All stats from whoscored.com.