Thomas Tuchel sends message to Premier League rivals…

Thomas Tuchel sends message to Premier League rivals as Antonio Conte handed Tottenham dilemma

Antonio Conte and his Tottenham team are going to have to get used to a specific tactic Chelsea deployed in Sunday's entertaining 2-2 draw time and time again this season. Heading to Stamford Bridge on the back of an impressive 4-1 win over Southampton, Thomas Tuchel had a plan in place and it worked to perfection.

Eight days earlier Spurs had ripped Saints apart and they didn't even need Harry Kane or Son Heung-min on the scoresheet to secure all three points. While the former had the last laugh in west London as he helped the Lilywhites salvage a late draw deep into stoppage time, the latter was incredibly quiet and went another game without a goal.

That may not have been the case in the opening two minutes had Dejan Kulusevski played a better ball to Son after some sloppy play from Jorginho. Perhaps slightly rusty as the game was barely two minutes old, the Swede just couldn't get his pass right and it ended up behind Son just as he had burst past Reece James midway inside the Chelsea half.

That was one of only a couple of times the South Korean superstar got beyond the Chelsea man as he was man marked by the 22-year-old throughout until he made way in the 79th minute. Son got no joy at all and could easily have been substituted off earlier as he had no impact on proceedings.

Operating as a right wing-back in the victory at Goodison Park a week earlier, Tuchel tinkered with his backline and it resulted in James switching to right centre-back as Ruben Loftus-Cheek took his spot at wing-back. Sensing real danger in Son down Tottenham's left, the German boss plumped for the speed and strength of James rather than Cesar Azpilicueta in the position.

His tactic worked to perfection as Son was totally nullified and left incredibly frustrated. Touching the ball 29 times, which was way down on his total of 55 against Southampton, the 30-year-old only had two shots and created one chance. He simply wasn't in the game.

Playing a pivotal role in the final third for Tottenham since arriving at the club after registering 131 goals and 74 assists, it's no surprise to see that teams want to mark him so closely as he has proved time and time again that he can punish them. Topping the Premier League charts last campaign with 23 goals, Son is going to have to get used to players paying very close attention to him between now and the end of the season. However, Kulusevski, Richarlison and Kane also fall into that category as Tottenham have some devastating options in attack who can win them games.

The key for Conte and his team is how they react to the situation when it arises again in a match. Seeing his team struggle going forward in the first hour at Stamford Bridge, the 53-year-old introduced Richarlison and opted for a bold 4-2-4 formation, to trouble Chelsea, a setup he admitted we could see again over the course of the campaign.

"Yes, but we have to work. We have to work on this system because the second goal we conceded was because defensively we were very poor. Very poor. If we stayed with three centre backs for sure we wouldn't concede this goal," he said.

"But this could be a good option for us because we have Richarlison and Harry. Sonny can also be a striker and we have wingers like Sonny, Deki. Also Ivan Perisic and Lucas Moura. And two midfielders.

"Yeah, we can switch sometimes to play in this new formation but for sure we need to work and have the same knowledge that we have in 3-4-2-1."

Now without a goal in his last two Tottenham games, Son will be intent on putting that right when Wolves visit Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday. Bruno Lage and his players will have other ideas, though.

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