It was a night that Tottenham and their head coach fully De-zerbed. Hoodoos broken and belief gained.
As Mathys Tel’s killer goal nestled in the net, De Zerbi raced down the pitch and pumped his fists at the jubilant travelling Tottenham fans. This was everything he expected from his players: a complete 97 minute performance and everything the supporters had dreamed of.
Chelsea’s home has never been a Stamford Bridge over troubled water for Spurs. They’ve mostly spluttered in SW6 and it took a united effort in the swirling rain to record just their second victory in 42 matches there on Saturday night.
Everyone played their part in the victory and the visitors’ first clean sheet at the Bridge since 1986, but there was something entirely fitting about the two players who had the key roles. Mateus Fernandes was named man of the match after finally getting the nod from De Zerbi for just his fourth Premier League start since his £85million move from West Ham.
Then the often maligned young Frenchman Tel wrapped up the 2-0 victory with a near pitch-long run. The 21-year-old was taken off moments later which enabled him to enjoy a walk of honour in front of the noisy Spurs faithful who showered him in praise and song.
Tottenham had earned this victory through hard work and no little quality. Often their passing was a joy to behold as they cut through Chelsea from back to front and their time away last week has sprinkled some Marbella magic on top of the team’s already growing bond and fighting spirit.
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They are overcoming setbacks as a unit: Rodrigo Bentancur’s sending off at Old Trafford, a clumsy Coventry equaliser and then losing the instrumental James Maddison at Stamford Bridge.
If anything Spurs only got better on each occasion and it is part of what De Zerbi believes is “removing the mask”.
“The negative record [at Stamford Bridge] was the last problem we fought before the game. Normally we wanted to make our fans happy, but it’s not our responsibility, it’s the results of the past. Now, winning the game, we are very happy for them, very proud for the club, but I think we are working to change the mentality of our club in the last seasons,” said the 47-year-old.
“Seven points after Manchester, before Manchester we spoke a lot. A big, big meeting, removing the mask and speaking honestly, clearly in front of ourselves. And from that moment I think we changed something in ourselves.”
In his post-match club interview, Fernandes offered up the trip to Spain as a key moment in the squad’s forging without being asked about it.
“It was important, Marbella,” the Portuguese said with a big grin. “Marbella was very important for us as a team. We built a very good relationship with everyone, with the staff, with the team-mates. Now we’re playing as a team now.
“I think this is the change point for everybody. Now we keep going and we believe more than ever in our squad.”
De Zerbi took a little while to get going at Brighton as the players took on board what he was asking of them, but it all suddenly came together and he knew what it was like to win at the Bridge.
Now this new-look Spurs squad appear to be getting to grips with the ways of a coach Pep Guardiola famously called one of the most influential of the past 20 years.
Yes, his brand of football and baiting the press will bring mistakes. Both the excellent Fernandes and goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky sprinkled a couple of dangerous off-target passes amid otherwise mature displays.
It’s the nature of De Zerbi ball with so many quick passes and rapid movement that occasionally someone isn’t going to be exactly where they are meant to be or the ball will be played into the wrong space.
On the whole though, the passing football was repeatedly breathtaking, some of the best seen at the club since the early months of the Postecoglou era and before that Pochettino’s time.
It was in 2018 under the Argentine when Spurs last won at Stamford Bridge, a Christian Eriksen rocket from distance and a Dele Alli double sealing a 3-1 victory. This performance was no less dominant. Many expected Tottenham to have to play on the counter but instead they bossed possession, with 70 per cent of it at half-time and by the final whistle holding 68.5 per cent with 639 passes to their hosts’ 287.
They took 15 shots to Chelsea’s seven and dominated the duels, winning 64 to Chelsea’s 45 and triumphing in 17 aerial ones to the Blues’ seven.
They fought harder but were also more mature in the big moments. They could have reacted to Cole Palmer barging into the seated Fernandes’s face off the ball but they instead let the England international boil over himself and get a second yellow card with his late challenge on Sandro Tonali a little after.
In previous years that would have been Spurs making that same mistake, but unlike De Zerbi, who was a constant livewire on the touchline and got himself booked after Palmer’s first incident, the Tottenham players were cool, calm and collected throughout.
Fernandes was at the centre of it all. There was excitement around the club when they managed to lure the Portuguese to north London rather than Manchester United, believing they have a player who would fit into the best midfields in the world.
It has taken De Zerbi a little while to fit the 22-year-old into his own midfield since arriving from West Ham, despite his eye-catching displays for both the Hammers and Southampton in the competition.
“I think he needs to understand the club, to better understand to come inside the environment of a bigger club,” De Zerbi had said on Friday. “Different club, but he’s a good guy. I don’t change my idea about him, like the club [don’t change]. We pushed together to bring him,” said the Italian.
“We are convinced of his qualities and he has to stay with a calm head and confidence and enjoy on the pitch, enjoy with the ball – show his qualities because he will be one of the most important players of Tottenham for the future; for the present and the future.”
Fernandes was certainly a man for the present as he ran the game on Saturday. Chelsea’s more experienced Jordan Henderson and Moises Caicedo were left chasing shadows as the Portuguese mopped up everything and got Spurs moving up the pitch.
The Spurs man topped the stats from both sides with the most touches (121), most passes completed (91 from 99), most passes in final third (16), most tackles (5), most chances created (2) and triumphed in six duels and won possession six times.
He led the way on the pitch with 14 defensive contributions, Tonali coming in with 12 and Mohammed Kudus with 11.
Fernandes also swung in the corner that young Chelsea goalkeeper Mike Penders punched over his own goal line under pressure from Jan Paul van Hecke.
“I love watching my players fighting on the pitch. Mateus Fernandes played 90 minutes with a big, big quality,” said De Zerbi after the game.
“I want to see Mateus Fernandes with personality. I want to see Fernandes enjoy it with the ball. Even if he can make a mistake, it doesn’t matter. It’s not a problem, a mistake. But I want to see this personality from my team.
“We are a big club. In the last period the results have been not so good. But we are a top club in the Premier League. We must show personality. We must show mentality. We must show our qualities to the players. We have to change.”
Tonali and Fernandes was the midfield partnership the fans had been desperate to see. Giving the fans want they want in pairing big money signings together isn’t always the path to success – Tanguy Ndombele and Giovani Lo Celso showed that – but Tonali and Fernandes complement each other perfectly, both able to act as a six or eight depending on what the other is doing.
There were big displays from the older heads in Jan Paul van Hecke and Micky van de Ven in the centre of defence keeping the team’s third clean sheet of the season, Andy Robertson down the left, Sandro Tonali through the middle, Mohammed Kudus down the right and James Maddison before going off with an injury that De Zerbi told football.london was in his view “not very important”.
Even Conor Gallagher came off the bench to replace Maddison against his old team and led the fight from the Chelsea half.
“JP van Hecke played very well. Mateus Fernandes, Tonali, very well, the best game in his time in Tottenham,” said De Zerbi. “Marmoush, he played a good game, it was a tough game for him, but he fought in the right way.
“Mathys Tel played very well. I think we won the game with two wingers, Kudus and Mathys, they made the difference. Also Micky van de Ven, because he was unbelievable with the ball. I think, in my time, Micky played the best game.”
Robertson, who didn’t train all week after coming off against Coventry, told the BBC on Saturday that the difference is the team are starting to believe in themselves, that they can go to Old Trafford and Stamford Bridge and look at the names in their own squad and feel they can compete.
Those names also include the young players who deserve even more credit for their maturity. Fernandes, Archie Gray and Tel were remarkably composed throughout.
On the night, Gray played as right-back, left-back and even as a left winger in the final minutes.
The 20-year-old, forged in the fires of injury crises, relegation battles and new positions, has developed a remarkable calmness in a storm. During one moment in possession on Saturday, Van Hecke rushed across to him as a ball rolled his way with Chelsea players flying at them but the England U21 international simply held a hand up at the Dutchman, informing him that he had it covered and to remain in position.
Gray duly picked up the ball, spun and slotted it to a team-mate as if those home players breathing down his neck were not even there.
Then there was Tel. Like Gray, people forget how young the 21-year-old Frenchman is because he’s been forced to play so many matches by Tottenham’s situation in recent seasons.
He is a raw and unpolished diamond and there’s a reason Bayern Munich paid big money to Rennes for him as a teenager but also a reason they accepted even more from Tottenham to sell him.
Tel is still learning his trade, but he holds an unshakeable belief that if at first he doesn’t succeed then his next action will and that’s a crucial part of a footballer’s psychology.
His goal showcased exactly that. He had enjoyed a battle with Josh Acheampong throughout the game, but the key for the Frenchman is what he does after he beats his man and it’s something he admits he’s working on.
On 87 minutes he showed exactly what he needs to do more of. He tracked back and won the ball off Acheampong midway in his own half, raced away from the Chelsea defender and then cut inside past Maxence Lacroix and from 25 yards out fizzed a low right-footed effort past Penders and inside the left-hand post.
Robertson said Tel was “outstanding and that’s the Mathys we all know,” while De Zerbi was delighted for the younger but knows he’s a work in progress.
“Yes [it’s what he needs], but he has to push, to push, to push, to keep going, because he is a talent. But he has to clean [up] the last 30m, the last decision, the last pass, the shot. He has an unbelievable shot,” said the Italian.
“He has to try [it more] on the pitch. I believe in Mathys, maybe more than what he believes in himself.
“But it’s a journey of this club. I think Tottenham is lucky. Me, as a coach, I’m lucky because we have a great group of players, as qualities, but also as people.
“The future of this club can be important if we keep this mentality, this behaviour.”
De Zerbi is connecting with his players. The sign of a top coach, and one whose players want to play for him, is when those left out are desperate to show what they can do rather than sitting and sulking and both Fernandes and Tel came up trumps for him on Saturday night in wet SW6.
The players are enjoying his regime and his ways with them. While walking on to the team coach after making his return from a hamstring injury, Pedro Porro planted a cheeky kiss on the back of De Zerbi’s neck as he was undertaking his club interview.
Can you imagine any of the Tottenham players doing that to the Italian’s predecessors Thomas Frank and Igor Tudor or even those who came before them?
De Zerbi has that impish, rascal-like way about him, he likes to get close to his players and his belief in how the game should be played resonates with them.
Even when they’re not scoring there’s an art to how they are now passing the ball.
For instance, the move that led to Omar Marmoush’s saved chance in the first half had a bit of everything, passing out from the back, great running and movement with Robertson playing a one-two with Tel and picking out the Egyptian in the box for what should have been the opener.
De Zerbi will hope that Maddison’s injury is not bad and there was another late appearance for Dejan Kulusevski, who again looked sharp despite so long out of the game.
“Maddison and Kulusevski, we have to manage them like two diamonds, because both are special players,” said the Spurs boss. “Both have different personalities, different experiences. With the medical staff, we have managed, step by step, day by day, week by week, staying on the pitch, because they are different players.”
Spurs need the duo but even without them, they have started to score goals, eight of them in the past three matches.
They’re moving in the right direction on the pitch and up the Premier League table. They now sit 12th, the highest position they have held since January 2.
It shows just how bad Tottenham have been that this is only the second time in 42 attempts that they have registered back-to-back league wins.
It feels like the start of something different but it’s down to Spurs to keep their momentum rather than frittering it away.
“We need to fight for every ball, every minute,” said Fernandes. “We know that Tottenham don’t have a lot of victories in this stadium, so we want to change this mentality around the club, around the fans. We want to fight for big things, for the titles.”
Titles have felt like a distant pipe dream in the past 18 months but finally something is stirring at Spurs. Belief is returning, both in the players but also in the fanbase with results and performances like this.
The Stamford Bridge hoodoo has been long and painful and it’s perhaps worth noting that the last win there in 2018 came before a third-placed finish and then a Champions League final the following campaign.
De Zerbi will want this to be the starting point, the moment when his Tottenham Hotspur squad finally believed that, in the words of George McFly, “if you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything”.