Chelsea player ratings vs. Spurs: Pedro, Mateo Kovacic best among Blues

Jorginho, Midfielder: 7

After nearly 40 games of monotony with Maurizio Sarri we are not quite ready to say he has learned, adapted and is turning the corner. He still has a long way to go before we think he is working pragmatically to save his job while getting an assist from good fortune. But good god, if he starts reworking his tactics and team structure to cover for Jorginho’s shortcomings we may need to offer him a clean slate.

Chelsea’s compact defensive and midfield lines reduced their vulnerability to attacks that run straight at Jorginho. Tottenham did not have the space to attack Chelsea’s defensively-deficient deep-lying midfielder, which had the side effect of padding Jorginho’s defensive stats. Because Tottenham had nowhere to go and turned over the ball so much in the middle of the pitch, Jorginho had six tackles, four interceptions and two clearances. That is a season-high in tackles and interceptions, and matched his season-high in clearances.

Sarri still has a long way to go to cover for Jorginho’s passing deficiencies. His reflexive, rote one-touch passing was at the root of many Chelsea giveaways and scrambles. Jorginho usually had other options, but he did what he does and Tottenham nearly always knew what that was. Mateo Kovacic and Marcos Alonso had more passes than him, so perhaps Sarri is coming to a new understanding of his regista (did he even watch Napoli last season?).

N’Golo Kante, Midfielder: 8

There was a stretch of play about 15-20 minutes into the game where every time N’Golo Kante received the ball the details of his extremely precise technical play jumped out at me. How he angled his body to receive a pass, how he directed his first touch to set up what he already had in mind, how he positioned himself to make a pass, his footwork going into a dribble or into a tackle. Mundane plays made quietly brilliant by the touch of a master.

The challenge for any future manager he has will not be figuring out what is the best role for him, but designing a role for him that plays to all of his many strengths. He is showing enough as a box-to-box midfielder that he should no longer be “just” a defensive holding midfielder, but the latter is still is best position compared to anyone else in the world.

Perhaps someone studying for their “A” license can write their thesis on building a position and a team around N’Golo Kante.

Mateo Kovacic, Midfielder: 8.5

Kovacic had one of his best games at Chelsea, again benefitting from the compactness of the lines on defence and Chelsea’s shift to more purposeful vertical passing on offence (that, in turn, being a function of spending less time in possession). He connected the play between the defence (Alonso or Luiz), Hazard and Jorginho, showing again how he could be the better option to replace Jorginho in the centre of the midfield. Kovacic’s pressing targeted Davinson Sanchez throughout the game, forcing the Tottenham centre-back to rush his passes and send them out to the wings and force Spurs to get on with the play.