Chelsea Draw Leaves Pochettino and Tottenham Hotspur with Plenty to Think About

It is the morning after the night before. Like with the worst of hangovers, Tottenham Hotspur’s players are waking up probably wondering if they behaved as badly as they remembered.

Things got messy in Monday night’s 2-2 draw with Chelsea. A result which ended Tottenham’s title challenge and handed Leicester City the Premier League crown (the Foxes will be suffering from a more pleasurable kind of hangover), leaving head coach Mauricio Pochettino and his team with plenty to think about moving forward.

Harry Kane and Heung-Min Son’s first-half goals had Spurs supporters believing. Their side’s calculated urgency going forward looked like it might overwhelm their London rivals, an opponent they had not beaten at Stamford Bridge for 26 years.

By the end of the game, the travelling fans were left staggered by their team’s subsequent collapse. Preventable goals from Gary Cahill and Eden Hazard left the home crowd roaring with delight.

The evening’s early hints of players getting caught up in the excitement manifesting in a near full-blown loss of shape and ill-discipline (for the latter, see below). The aggression that has served them so well in their relentless football replaced by desperate recklessness.

9 – Tottenham are the first team in Premier League history to have nine players booked in one game. Naughty.

— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) May 2, 2016

It is tempting to put it down to the inexperience in this young Spurs squad (generally fielding one of the top flight’s lowest average aged teams). But then some of the worst culprits were the supposed grown-ups of the party.

Players like Toby Alderweireld and Mousa Dembele, Danny Rose and Kyle Walker—the latter three all among those booked. Men who Pochettino specifically singled out citing the balance in his squad prior to last month’s 1-1 draw with Liverpool. “We are young but we are mature,” he said.

“Mature” was not …

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