Did Chelsea’s Defeat of Spurs Show Thibaut Courtois to Be the Blues’ Weak Link?

STAMFORD BRIDGE, LONDON — Chelsea may have been all level at 1-1 with Tottenham Hotspur at half-time on Saturday, but Antonio Conte wasn’t going to settle for that. The manager knew his side had problems, and he needed to make full use of the 15-minute interval to put things right.

Team talks are one thing, but getting players tuned in can sometimes require a different approach. It was five minutes or so before the second half would kick off; the only players on the pitch were the substitutes from each side attempting to outdo their team-mates with some showboating as they passed the time. Then Thibaut Courtois appeared with a member of the Chelsea backroom staff.

They jogged over to the Shed End goal that Courtois would be tending for the next 45 minutes, and the Belgian quickly began running through the motions of another warm-up session.

Courtois was involved in the usual ball-to-hand drills, but this one came with a difference; a big part of this impromptu training session seemed to focus on his feet. The goalkeeper was receiving the ball along the ground, controlling it before passing back to his coach. There were some longer clearances from goal too—the sort Courtois hadn’t done enough of in the opening period that had been so largely dominated by Spurs.

Courtois is out already for the second, warming up with a coach. Seemingly on his distribution… #CFC @br_uk pic.twitter.com/iCRm9R5On7

— Garry Hayes (@garryhayes) November 26, 2016

As much as Victor Wanyama and Mousa Dembele’s presence in the middle was stifling Chelsea, so too was Courtois’ poor distribution. When Chelsea were being penned in and struggling to win the ball back, a large part of it was because of Courtois’ inability to distribute effectively.

Goal kicks followed the same routine, with Cesar Azpilicueta receiving the ball close to his own corner flag. Heung-Min Son or one of his Spurs team-mates would then press him to the touchline, where Azpilicueta would be forced to hoof it free. And so started another Spurs attack, with the ball won in midfield and sent right back to where it came from.

This continued for much of the first half, and those Chelsea supporters sat behind Courtois in the Matthew Harding Stand were making no secret of their frustration. At one point, David Luiz seemed to remonstrate with Courtois about his unwillingness to get the ball clear effectively.

From where I’m sat, I couldn’t work it out. Either way, he was going full hair dryer…

— Garry Hayes (@garryhayes) November 26, 2016

Chelsea were inviting Spurs on to them, and the visitors didn’t need second invitation. They punished Chelsea after 11 minutes, and had it not been for Pedro’s wonder goal on the stroke of Michael Oliver’s half-time whistle—largely against the run of play—Mauricio Pochettino’s side could have been looking at a first win at Stamford Bridge since 1990.

Indeed, they should have won the game based on …

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