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Former Chelsea star Pat Nevin cannot believe that his old side have leapfrogged Tottenham Hotspur in the race to finish in the top-four, per the Blues’ official website.
What’s he said?
Chelsea beat Watford 3-0 at the weekend to secure qualification to the Champions League in 2019-20.
Spurs, meanwhile, lost to AFC Bournemouth on Saturday, while Arsenal dropped points against Brighton & Hove Albion on Sunday.
The two results mean that, unless Arsenal beat Burnley and Spurs lose to Everton with an eight-goal swing involved, Mauricio Pochettino’s men will join the Blues in the competition next term.
But Nevin has been amazed that his former side have been able to sneak in ahead of Spurs and is astonished that they could still finish above them this season.
Using his column on the Chelsea website to take a swipe at their London rivals, he said: “Before going to the Chelsea v Watford game I was down on the south coast for the Bournemouth v Spurs match. Once more Spurs managed to implode when the pressure got to them but it was also clear they were jaded. Before the game, I noted that they had won only three in their last 10 league games, but it was more than that, they lacked a team spark in that first half.
“With Champions League football for next season in the balance, I was amazed at how sluggish they looked in that first 45. With a little further consideration it became apparent that just too many of their players were running on empty.
“They have a limited squad in terms of depth, their Champions League run has stressed them too far and in the season after a World Cup, it was all just too much to overcome. They didn’t manage to or weren’t able to, rotate their squad enough, especially the most vital players. That’s why they have only picked up 10 points from the last 33.”
Ignores key injury woes
Nevin clearly has his Chelsea glasses on but he is ignoring perhaps the key reason for Spurs’ woes: injuries.
The main reason Pochettino has been unable to rotate his squad is that so much of it has been in the treatment room.
The likes of Harry Kane, Harry Winks, Dele Alli, Serge Aurier, Eric Dier, Victor Wanyama and Moussa Sissoko have all been injured at one point or another in 2018-19, while Son Heung-Min had to leave the club behind to represent South Korea in the middle of the campaign.
That they are in the top four at all, then, is nothing short of a miracle.
Nevin said that he noted the club’s results across the past 10 games; he clearly didn’t pay any attention to their injury list.