Chelsea vs Tottenham Hotspur

The two London rivals Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur will play their Premier League match at Stamford Bridge exactly ten years after the historic "Battle of the Bridge" in this week's Thursday night fixture.

The clubs met for an action-packed North London encounter approximately four months ago that Chelsea won 4-3.

The victory streak of Chelsea (four games across competitions) ended before international breaks after Arsenal defeated them 1-0 at the Emirates Stadium on March 16.

A first-half header from Mikel Merino resulted in Chelsea's third Premier League defeat of their last five matches leaving Enzo Maresca's team in sixth position two places below Manchester City in fourth and one spot shy of Newcastle United in fifth after both clubs won on Wednesday and Brentford's 11th place in the table puts them eight points trailing Chelsea who have nine matches remaining in the season.

Chelsea fights to move beyond fifth-place in the Premier League standings because they aim to stay away from their third consecutive Premier League season out of the top five positions while they ready themselves for upcoming fixtures in three competitions with each match facing bottom-tier opponents and their two-part Conference League matchup with Legia Warsaw scheduled for this month.

The West Londoners will host their fans at Stamford Bridge for a fourth consecutive Premier League victory while maintaining clean sheets in their last two matches against Southampton (4-0) and Leicester (1-0). Chelsea accomplished this streak only once in the past five seasons from April to May 2024 after beating Spurs 2-0.

Chelsea will be optimistic heading into Thursday’s match, given their strong historical record against Tottenham. With 36 Premier League wins and 120 goals scored against Spurs—their highest against any opponent—the Blues have consistently dominated this fixture. In fact, only three teams in Premier League history have scored more goals against a single club than Chelsea have against Tottenham (Arsenal, Man United, and Liverpool each have 124 against Everton, Everton, and Newcastle, respectively).

Tottenham’s Struggles Continue

Like Chelsea, Tottenham failed to secure a win before the international break, suffering their 15th league defeat of the season in a 2-0 loss to Fulham. Goals from Rodrigo Muniz and former Spurs player Ryan Sessegnon sealed their fate at Craven Cottage, leaving them 14th in the table and 10 points adrift of the top half.

For manager Ange Postecoglou, Europa League success may now be the only saving grace after another disappointing result—one he branded "unacceptable." Pressure is mounting on the Greek-Australian boss, who could make unwanted history if Spurs lose on Thursday. A defeat would make him the first Tottenham manager ever to lose his first four league meetings against Chelsea.

Tottenham has lost five of nine London derby games this season (W3 D1) and has the fewest Premier League points (10, tied with Brentford). Spurs have only lost more London derbies in a league season in 1987–88, 1989–90, 2003–04 (all six), and 2004–05 (seven).

Tottenham is hoping to win their first game at Stamford Bridge since a 3-1 victory in April 2018, but they have lost eight of their 14 away games in the top flight this season, with only Southampton (12) and Leicester (11) having lost more. The Lilywhites haven't lost more away games in a single league season since 2008–09.