Ben Davies-7.5
Full credit to the Welsh international, he stood up with an excellent performance against Chelsea. He was solid in defense with several crucial challenges and blocks when his teammates left him exposed.
Davies even managed to get forward with some regularity. He wasn’t able to create any concrete scoring opportunities, but it was an above average performance from Danny Rose’s understudy.
Kieran Trippier-3.5
I sincerely hope that Trippier is still injured. He was shockingly awful against Chelsea. His pitiful defending was a big reason that Alonso managed to find the back of the net twice. In particular, he stood and watched as his counterpart ran past him to score the eventual match winning goal.
If this is all the former Burnley man can offer against elite competition then Pochettino may as well hand the starting job to Kyle Walker-Peters or someone he purchases in the transfer market. Trippier was several steps off the pace today and will need a strong week of training to get back into Pochettino’s starting XI next week. Let’s all hope his weak play was simply a result of his injury. If not, selling Kyle Walker could prove disastrous.
Jan Vertonghen-7
The Belgian central defender put in a pretty decent shift against Chelsea. He wasn’t imperious by any means, but he did a pretty good job keeping the Blues’ attack quiet.
Some might think he was fortunate to escape a red card on his heavy second half challenge, but his foul was compounded by Willian pushing him in the back. In truth, I thought he was a little unlucky to be booked at all. It wasn’t Super Jan’s best day, but it wasn’t his worst either.
Toby Alderweireld-6.5
The other half of Spurs’ central defensive partnership never seemed to get in the flow on the afternoon. He looked a bit harried in possession and wasn’t his usual dominant self in defense.
In fairness, he had to try to compensate for Trippier’s abysmal play on his right. The absence of a reasonable right back may have caused him to try to do too much on the pitch. You can expect Alderweireld to bounce back nicely next week.