Chapter 387: If We Can Beat Them Once, We Can Beat Them Twice and Three Times!

“Damn it!”

Watching the one thing he wanted to avoid happen on the field, Pochettino angrily kicked the turf on the sidelines!

By all normal standards, even facing Chelsea, his team shouldn’t have conceded so early.

Clearly, many of Spurs’ starters were underperforming today.

Especially their front-line attackers — their poor form completely disrupted Tottenham’s usually fearsome wing attacks.

Falling behind early in such a fashion left Pochettino fuming.

If his players had played normally and still lost, he could have accepted it.

But watching them buckle mentally and physically on the pitch?

He felt deeply frustrated!

Unable to suppress his anger, Pochettino marched back to the bench and gestured for Ryan Mason and Nacer Chadli to start warming up.

Both players — one recently recovered from injury, the other relegated to bench duties late in the season — weren’t necessarily going to be subbed on immediately.

But Pochettino needed to send a message:

If he trusted them enough to start, he could also bench them by halftime!

It was a blunt tactic, but it worked.

As soon as Mason and Chadli started warming up, a few Tottenham attackers visibly changed their attitudes.

Forget about dwelling on the conceded goal —

once the match resumed, Son Heung-min and Lamela both became much more eager to demand the ball and drive forward.

Eriksen remained calm.

As Spurs’ creative fulcrum, he didn’t have to worry about being subbed off.

Besides, his decision to drop deeper and avoid direct battles with Li Ang was strategic, not cowardly.

Sometimes, it was wiser to conserve energy and make calculated decisions rather than clash head-on.

Thus, Eriksen stayed deeper, partnering Dembélé to stabilize Spurs’ midfield and passing rhythm.

Under their guidance, Tottenham finally found some attacking momentum toward the latter stages of the first half.

After the 35th minute, Spurs controlled much of the offensive flow,

creating several threatening chances.

Chelsea’s defense, weakened by heavy rotation, naturally couldn’t lock Spurs down the way their full-strength lineup would.

Fortunately, goalkeeper Oblak was in inspired form —

saving key shots from Kane and Lamela to preserve Chelsea’s slim 1–0 lead at halftime.

Li Ang was dissatisfied with Chelsea’s defensive quality late in the half,

but he understood the limitations of his makeshift teammates.

Expecting Van Ginkel and Loftus-Cheek to perform like Matić and Kroos was unrealistic.

All Li Ang could do was shoulder extra defensive duties himself.

At least, he consoled himself, the young guys listened to instructions.

Mentally prepared to work even harder after the break,

Li Ang accepted Mourinho’s halftime tactical adjustments that placed even greater defensive responsibility on his shoulders.

No choice —

Matić was still at home watching on TV.

There were no other true defensive midfielders available.

With Loftus-Cheek still too raw, Mourinho could only continue leaning on Li Ang.

When the second half began,

Li Ang stayed deep, while Van Ginkel pushed slightly forward to assist with distribution.

It sacrificed most of Li Ang’s offensive output,

but it gave Chelsea’s front players a great sense of security.

Feeling that psychological stability, Chelsea’s attackers performed even better.

And with Spurs pushing harder and playing more openly,

the game soon turned into a fierce end-to-end battle.

This made the match truly entertaining.

Mourinho didn’t mind the increased risks —

he wanted Chelsea to score again and secure the victory early.

Pochettino, of course, was thrilled to see a more open match.

The less conservative Chelsea played, the better Tottenham’s chances of equalizing.

The physicality and pace of the game ramped up dramatically.

Freed from psychological pressure, Spurs’ attackers finally showed their real ability,

breaking into Chelsea’s defensive third repeatedly.

Li Ang worked tirelessly to disrupt their rhythm,

but Loftus-Cheek’s defensive shortcomings and Van Ginkel’s off-day made it difficult.

Even Messi and Ronaldo needed teammates to shine.

Without proper support, even superstars struggled.

Thankfully, Mourinho spotted Li Ang’s struggle quickly.

Without hesitation, he sent Kroos to warm up.

In the 60th minute,

Mourinho subbed off Van Ginkel and brought on Kroos.

Fully warmed up, Kroos immediately lightened Li Ang’s defensive burden.

The German’s superior long-passing allowed him to organize from deeper positions,

meaning he didn’t need to push high to control play.

With Kroos assisting defensively,

Li Ang could finally push forward more selectively and link the team’s transitions better.

Loftus-Cheek, by contrast, continued to show immaturity.

Often confused in possession, he made baffling decisions —

trying risky through balls when a simple pass was needed,

or dribbling into dead ends and shooting wildly.

Watching from the sideline, Mourinho’s face darkened.

Even Li Ang felt his head ache watching it.

Young players needed chances and patience, sure —

but Chelsea were chasing a historic third consecutive league title and back-to-back Champions League crowns.

There wasn’t much tolerance for mistakes here.

Players like Gnabry had already shown enough promise to earn the coaching staff’s trust.

But Loftus-Cheek’s development clearly wasn’t enough yet.

Seeing Mourinho’s displeasure, Li Ang decisively pulled back his license to attack.

He ordered Loftus-Cheek to stay deep alongside Kroos and act purely as a defensive bodyguard.

The kid was obedient enough,

but couldn’t seem to suppress his restless attacking instincts.

Li Ang knew he couldn’t fix that overnight.

All he could do was cover for him as best as possible for now.

Ultimately, Loftus-Cheek’s future at Chelsea would depend on himself.

Li Ang could help for now —

but he couldn’t help forever.

Once freed from his defensive duties and able to participate in attack, Li Ang quickly established a smooth passing channel with Salah.

With Hazard resting, Salah was undoubtedly Chelsea’s sharpest attacking spearhead.

While having multiple threats in an attacking system is important, — even for elite teams — having a reliable main threat is a rare blessing.

In this regard, Chelsea were extremely fortunate:

Hazard dominated the left side in the starting lineup, while Salah terrorized opponents down the right when rotated in.

Li Ang’s trust in the Egyptian winger was absolute.

As long as Salah wasn’t playing so poorly that Mourinho had to sub him off,

Li Ang would continuously feed him the ball.

And Salah responded, quickly coming to life again.

The more ball possession these direct wingers received, the better they performed —

they thrived under pressure and rarely worried about occasional mistakes.

In terms of handling pressure and shaking off mistakes,

Salah was now miles ahead of Tottenham’s wingers.

It showed clearly in the match:

Son Heung-min and Lamela couldn’t shine nearly as brightly as Salah.

Salah, with ample supply, immediately began suppressing Tottenham’s left-back Danny Rose.

Before Dembélé could even think about dropping back to double-team Salah,

Spurs’ left defensive flank had already crumbled.

Danny Rose’s confidence had cracked!

The English left-back, heavily praised by the media and recently called up to the national team,

now had to resort to tactical fouls to stop Salah.

Within five or six minutes, Salah had drawn a yellow card from Danny Rose,

and even forced Son Heung-min into receiving a verbal warning from the referee for a cynical foul!

Pochettino was tearing his hair out on the sidelines —

but Salah was far from finished.

In the 72nd minute,

Kroos launched a long ball from the back,

finding Llorente pulling out of the box to ask for the ball.

The Spanish target man held off Eric Dier, secured possession,

then calmly laid it off to the advancing Li Ang.

Without hesitation, Li Ang shifted it wide again —

back to the red-hot Salah.

This time, Salah didn’t opt for a baseline dribble against Danny Rose.

Instead, he cut inside immediately after receiving Li Ang’s pass.

Tottenham’s defense remained organized,

and Rose quickly tracked him,

causing most of the crowd to expect Salah to recycle possession back to Li Ang.

Li Ang himself thought so.

He had already started moving closer, ready to receive the return pass.

But suddenly,

Salah, without breaking stride,

decided to shoot!

Under tight pressure from Danny Rose, Salah unleashed a lofted shot —

a daring, audacious move that caught everyone by surprise.

Even Lloris’ reaction was half a beat too slow!

The ball arced beautifully through the air,

like a rainbow, slow yet deadly.

Lloris’ late dive seemed almost well-timed —

but Salah’s shot was so precisely placed that even a fingertip couldn’t save it.

With commentators screaming in amazement,

the ball kissed the tips of Lloris’ gloves and buried itself into the top left corner of Spurs’ net!

It was a stunning world-class curler!

Li Ang stared in awe at Salah’s confident smile as he sprinted toward the corner flag.

Inside, he marveled:

This teammate might have just undergone another level of evolution.

Then he grinned:

Another assist for free!

Following Salah to the touchline,

Li Ang waited until his teammate finished his heart-shaped celebration gesture toward the cameras,

then affectionately patted Salah on the head.

Chelsea’s attackers quickly swarmed over,

engulfing Salah and Li Ang in a wave of joyous celebration.

Mourinho leapt up from the bench,

breathing a heavy sigh of relief before showering his players with applause.

Honestly, after deciding to rotate so heavily,

Mourinho had been a little nervous.

Facing this resurgent Spurs side with a rotated lineup wasn’t a guaranteed win.

But today, Chelsea’s starting attackers didn’t let him down.

Li Ang, especially, had held the entire midfield and backline together almost by himself when the rotations faltered.

Now, sitting on a two-goal lead,

Mourinho felt this was more than he had dared to hope for.

Now all that remained was locking down the three points.

Chelsea’s celebrations ran a little long, forcing the linesman to come over and rush them.

As play restarted,

Li Ang noticed Mourinho already briefing Harry Maguire and Kieran Trippier on the touchline.

Sure enough, a few seconds later, the fourth official held up the substitution board.

Chelsea made a double change:

Maguire and Trippier came on, while Li Ang and goalscorer Gnabry were subbed off.

Mourinho’s intentions were clear:

replace a midfielder and a winger with two defenders —

park the luxury bus.

With five defenders barricading the box,

and Trippier dropping into a midfield destroyer role alongside Kroos and Loftus-Cheek,

Chelsea sealed off all pathways to goal.

Even Salah and Llorente dropped back deep.

Spurs were left with no space to build effective attacks.

Frustrated, they resorted to long balls into the box —

the classic English fallback strategy.

But Kane was utterly isolated.

Maguire, freshly subbed on, immediately turned into an aerial monster,

winning four headers in just six minutes.

Spurs’ crosses became increasingly desperate and inaccurate.

The referee didn’t hesitate —

after three minutes of stoppage time, he blew the final whistle!

Two straight wins!

Under enormous fixture pressure before their Champions League semifinal clash,

Chelsea defeated two strong Premier League opponents back-to-back,

further tightening their grip on first place.

The victories boosted Chelsea’s confidence sky-high.

Now they could focus completely on Atlético Madrid in the Champions League,

no longer worried about Manchester City breathing down their necks.

After the match,

Li Ang smartly refused to give interviews,

avoiding any possible distraction before the European battle.

But privately, during a team gathering,

he made a bold declaration:

“Atlético were already our defeated opponents last year. If we beat them once, we can beat them again — twice, even three times!”