Chelsea are 11 points behind Manchester City and two points ahead of Tottenham Hotspur. Those two points represent more than just the difference between third and fifth place in the Premier League.
Tottenham Hotspur and Leicester City played 90 minutes in a time warp on Tuesday. The Foxes played like the marauding, lightning-quick counter-attackers that won the title in 2014/15. Their style and execution was undimmed, even if they were without the Chelsea-tied trio of N’Golo Kante, Danny Drinkwater and Claudio Ranieri.
Meanwhile, Tottenham kept the pressure on until the final whistle and went home empty-handed.Just like two years ago, just like last season. Riyadh Mahrez’s winning goal in the 45+1′ was the mirror-image of Eden Hazard’s title-winner (for Leicester) in May 2016. All this has happened before, and all this will happen again.
In the days between drawing with West Bromwich Albion and losing at Leicester City, Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino all but surrendered his team’s title race. He described the 13-point gap to Manchester City as “massive” and gave the impression that his team must find a new goal and a new priority for the season.
Chelsea are only two points closer to the Premier League leaders, but their attitude is starkly different. At his pre-match press conference Antonio Conte, as he has done in recent weeks, acknowledged City’s lead without making any global statements about the title race. He compared the expectations around Chelsea last season to this season. Most importantly, he kept his focus on the first thing under his control: three points from Swansea City to close up with Manchester United.
"Man City are going very well now. If you take them out of the table, there is Manchester United. Our target must be to look at the team who is in front of us, in this case Manchester United. Our first target is to try to catch them up, and if we are able to do this, then we can see who is the team who stays in front of us. This must be our mentality. – Chelsea FC"
Conte’s captain echoed this approach.
"I don’t think we can keep looking behind us. We are not even at Christmas yet. The right thing and the most positive thing is to keep looking at the team at the front… [T]he biggest prize is to win the League, so we will keep trying for that. – Evening Standard"
Gary Cahill then underlined the difference between the two London clubs, borne from experience and culture. “We have been there and done it.”
Chelsea were eight points behind Manchester City last season, and went on to win the Premier League by seven points. Their gap over Manchester City was 15 points on the final day. The issue is not whether Chelsea can pull off another 23-point swing. They only need to pull off – over the course of the remaining 25 matches – a 12-point swing. Tottenham, if they so chose, would need a 14-point swing. Their first step – again, if they so chose (why are we giving them a blueprint?) – would be to close the one-point gap with Arsenal.
If they so chose.
The difference in the belief, the determination and the will between Chelsea and Tottenham is much greater than two points on the table. The unfortunate thing (for Tottenham fans and perhaps some neutrals – Chelsea fans may just point and laugh) is that Mauricio Pochettino seemed to offer a breakout from the culture of Spursiness at White Hart Lane.
Next: Antonio Conte masterminded Danny Drinkwater - Philippe Coutinho matchup
Instead, they may spend the rest of the season once again “keeping the pressure on” the eventual winners. With the top-six as tight as they are this season, that could quickly spiral down to them settling to keep the pressure on the top-four.