Tottenham vs Chelsea is dreadful timing for Antonio Conte as Spurs show calm amid transfer window panic

Arch enemies | Chelsea face Spurs at Wembley
Tottenham Hotspur FC via Getty Images
John Dillon15 August 2017

One game down and so far, it is Maurico Pochettino’s cool-hand ability to keep his nerve which has delivered the most promising opening to the Premier League campaign among London’s big clubs.

Chelsea have plunged themselves into a bout of anxiety which is all of their own making following their 3-2 home defeat by Burnley.

And the timing is dreadful ahead of Sunday’s trip to Wembley to face Tottenham. Antonio Conte has hardly presented a picture of serenity this summer.

His club have bought big, sold big and all it seems to have done is dismantle the mood of optimism and confidence which surrounded Stamford Bridge after the title win last May.

In Pictures | Chelsea vs Burnley | 12/08/2017

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Pochettino, by contrast, has been calm and patient and has not spent a penny. He has backed his current squad all the way and has not undermined them by screaming for reinforcements.

And the reward came with one of the most impressive and satisfying performances of the opening weekend, the 2-0 win at Newcastle.

In typical fashion, Pochettino is presenting an early-season demonstration of the arts of management which exist beyond the mere ability to flash the chequebook: leadership, certainty, resolution and purpose.

He also dealt firmly - and importantly, with notable sang-froid - with Danny Rose’s discontent last week. If Spurs’ players really are so unhappy with their wages, it didn’t show at St James’ Park.

Perhaps Conte needs to re-tune to those same ideas about management rather than concern himself with the apparent frailty of Chelsea’s squad. He marked himself out as a serious and deeply passionate leader of men in his first season in charge; it is time to make that the story at Chelsea again.

After all, self-fulfilling prophecies abound in football. Arsene Wenger finally admitted before the 4-3 win against Leicester that the uncertainty around his future last season infected the dressing room.

So, if Conte too often transmits the message that his current group of players aren’t up to defending the title, they might start to believe it. That will send Chelsea down a familiar path of upheaval which resulted in the implosion of Jose Mourinho’s second reign in west London just two years ago.

That is not to say that Chelsea do not require strengthening. The vast spending by both Manchester clubs this summer has cranked up the arms race among the elite another few notches.

It is why Mourinho’s United and Pep Guardiola’s City feature more strongly in the bettings odds than any London side.

The sale of Nemanja Matic by Chelsea to United looks more troubling too following his storming performance in the 4-0 demolition of West Ham, although Conte had decided way back that he was surplus to requirements.

The Italian seems determined to make his points about all this, which he sees as the best tactical approach to the situation – and it has been his way at his previous clubs.

But £130 million has already been spent at Stamford Bridge on landing Alvaro Morata, Antonio Rudiger and Tiemoué Bakayoko. If Pocchettino can work so well with what he’s got, why can’t Conte?

That becomes the imperative ahead of the trip to Wembley, which presents London with a compelling flashpoint of derby rivalries merely a week into the new campaign.

It would have been a major occasion, anyway. Now, given Chelsea’s poor start, it crackles with possibilities.

Not least of them will be Tottenham’s adjustment to playing at the national stadium, where they won only once in five games last season.

In Pictures | Newcastle vs Tottenham | 13/08/2017

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Pochettino is playing this issue with a low-key approach. What else can he do? But it will become a focus of attention very quickly if Spurs lose against Chelsea, as they did in the FA Cup semi-final last April.

Spurs’ spending plans will remain a matter for debate whatever happens this weekend.

Pocchetino assures the fans they will buy, eventually. And Daniel Levy is renowned for his liking for doing business late in the window.

The key point for now - after only one game, admittedly - is that the team looks just fine without any additions. Yes, the squad needs more depth. But that gives Levy a good hand to play in the market.

There is no sense of desperation about Spurs’ need to do business, as there seems to be in Conte’s mind at Chelsea. It is a good way to be in what will be the most frantic season the Premier League has known.

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