Ex-Spurs Scout: Chelsea player ratings v Tottenham – Silva impresses, Mudryk ‘terrible’
Tottenham News is delighted to welcome aboard our brilliant new columnist Bryan King, the former goalkeeper who spent six years as a senior scout at Spurs and 28 years in total in first-team scouting roles. Bryan also spent eight years on Everton’s recruitment team and 11 years scouting at Aston Villa across two different spells.
Chelsea scored three second-half goals to secure a 4-1 win against nine-man Tottenham at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Monday 6 November.
It marks Ange Postecoglou’s first defeat in the Premier League on a frustrating evening where he lost two key players, James Maddison and Micky van de Ven, to injury, and saw both Cristian Romero and Destiny Udogie sent off.
Despite those issues, Spurs did everything they could to hang on and even grab a goal themselves, but in the end, Chelsea were able to make their numerical advantage count and end their London rivals’ 11-match unbeaten run in the league, as Mauricio Pochettino claimed a win upon his return to north London.
Ex-Spurs scout Bryan King watched on for Tottenham News and has provided his player ratings for the visitors.
Robert Sanchez – 6
“He is a strange player. He made a good save in the first half, but when he had the ball at his feet he never looked happy. He doesn’t seem to give his back four any confidence, he looked nervous, and made some terrible clearances.”
Reece James – 6
“It was a big plus for Mauricio Pochettino to have him on the pitch, however, I bet he wished he wasn’t playing for the first 30 minutes because Brennan Johnson and Destiny Udogie were causing him plenty of problems. He became a much better player when Chelsea had the numerical advantage, but I thought he was lucky to stay on.”
Levi Colwill – 5
“He got involved with things that he shouldn’t have got involved with. Got a yellow card and he ended up being taken off for his own good, Dejan Kulusevski gave him a very tough time.”
Thiago Silva – 7
“I like Silva, to be able to conduct himself in the way he does at that age is impressive. He is a tough Brazillian, and Chelsea leaned on his experience late on.”
Axel Disasi – 6
“He had problems in the first half an hour but things got easier for him when Spurs had nine men. However, even then, he still had problems containing Son Heung-min.”
Moises Caicedo – 6
“I thought this was one of his better games. Although his goal was disallowed, it was still a great strike.”
Enzo Fernandez – 5
“He came off just before the hour mark. He is a quality player but I expected more from him.”
Cole Palmer – 7
“I thought he played well, for a young lad he showed great composure to take the penalty, however, he did get a bit fortunate as Guglielmo Vicario got both hands on it, luckily for him the pace of the ball took it in.”
Conor Gallagher – 6
“He doesn’t stand out much more than Palmer who is far younger than him.”
Raheem Sterling – 7
“He is always a problem, he still has his pace and he gave Tottenham plenty of issues out wide.”
Nicolas Jackson – 7
“He has to get a seven because he scored three goals on the night, but really he could have scored six. He has the potential to be better than he has been for Chelsea so far. He was always going to get chances against nine players, but to be fair to him he was in the right positions.”
Subsitutes
Marc Cucurella – 6
“The space was there for him to exploit when he came on.”
Mykhailo Mudryk – 5
“His touches and runs were terrible. He could have had the freedom of the left-hand side.”
Malo Gusto – 5
“He was looking for aggravation, I noticed him making some comments to Tottenham players.”
Lesley Ugochukwu – N/A
In other Tottenham news, King has provided his ratings for the Spurs players on the evening.