Stellini could pile more misery on Chelsea by unleashing “world-class” Spurs machine

Tottenham Hotspur are back in action this lunchtime as they welcome Chelsea to north London for a huge derby in the Premier League.

Under the control of assistant manager Cristian Stellini, Spurs will be looking to build on last weekend’s 2-0 win over West Ham United, whilst for Graham Potter, the pressure continues to rise amid a poor run of results.

The Blues unusually find themselves down in 10th place, some 11 points behind the Lilywhites, who can bolster their top-four claims as Newcastle United and Manchester United go head-to-head in the Carabao Cup final later today.

Should Heung-min Son start vs Chelsea?

There are no fresh injury concerns lingering around Hotspur Way, according to the aforementioned Italian, so much of the same squad will be available to face Chelsea.

It means Stellini – and Antonio Conte from afar – will have a tough decision to make in terms of team selection, with the XI doing the business last time out.

Will Heung-min Son start against Chelsea?

One player that could come back into the fold is Heung-min Son, who was dropped from the starting lineup against the Hammers, with his struggles in recent months obvious.

He did come off the bench to provide the winner, so that may have provided the spark he needed to get back to his very best and a red-hot Son could cause a struggling side like Chelsea a lot of problems this afternoon, so the management team must capitalise on that and unleash him from the off this time around.

After replacing Richarlison, it took the South Korean just four minutes to find the net, latching onto a nicely-timed ball from his record-breaking partner Harry Kane, with the duo rolling it back to last season when they combined more times than any other duo in the Premier League.

Son’s 7.4 match rating was only usurped by two other players on the afternoon – fellow goalscorer Emerson Royal and clean sheet counterpart Cristian Romero – as per Sofascore.

Whilst it was the 30-year-old’s 11th goal contribution of the 2022/23 campaign, it was only the third Premier League game in which he’s scored, via Transfermarkt.

That should now give him plenty of confidence against a Chelsea side that haven’t won in any of their last five games and have registered just one victory in ten outings across all competitions.

It’s clear that Son is still capable of being the “world-class” talent that former Spurs boss Jose Mourinho once hailed him as, with the former Bayer Leverkusen dynamo among the top three performers for both shots and key passes per game, assets that could seriously pile more misery on Potter.

Therefore, Stellini and co must unleash the £48m-rated “machine” – as once lauded by Last Word on Spurs’ Ricky Sacks – this afternoon as he could well haunt the Blues and compound their nightmare even more.

AND in other news, “Spurs will look at him” – Paratici could move for “unplayable” £20m-rated “wizard” in the summer…