Joao Felix has been hugely influential for Chelsea since joining the club and has become a key player under Potter already. He is at the centre of almost everything Chelsea do and this means he gets a lot of the ball. Spurs do try and play counter-attacking football, especially against more possession-based teams like Chelsea.

Therefore I expect Chelsea to see a lot of the ball and Felix to attempt more passes than normal. Since joining Chelsea Felix has averaged 38.1 passes per 90 and in his 4 matches, the only match where he didn’t have at least 30 passes was the match against Fulham where he was sent off after 57 minutes, even by then he had attempted 24 passes. With Spurs missing key midfield players, Felix may find himself with even more room to operate in between the lines so I expect him to hit at least 30 passes again in this match.

Romero has committed the most fouls of any Spurs player so far this season, he averages 1.68 fouls per 90. He will be up against either Fofana or Havertz up front who draw 2.86 and 0.83 fouls per 90 respectively. As well as this, Romero will have to step up to Felix as well as watching Mudryk when he comes inside.

He will be faced with a lot of high quality players which is historically something he struggles with. He committed 2 fouls last time out against West Ham, 2 at home against Manchester City, 4 at home to Arsenal and 2 against Brighton away. Romero struggles against top teams and so I see him committing fouls in this match.

Spurs don’t have the tallest team and the likes of Badiashile and Thiago Silva are the targets of set pieces from Chelsea and will tower above the Spurs players. Thiago Silva has averaged 0.5 shots per 90 so far this season and recently has been even more dangerous. Silva has had a shot in 4 of his last 7 Chelsea matches and in a match where set pieces may be the difference, he could be the difference maker in this match.

Spurs allow 1.75 shots per 90 as a direct result of set pieces, Chelsea will fancy their chances of creating some chances from set pieces in this match. He is great value to have just 1 shot in this match so I am backing him for a shot.

Chelsea average 5.61 corners per match this season and since the World Cup break Chelsea are regularly hitting big corner numbers. In their last 7 matches, they have had at least 5 corners in every match and have had over 10 corners in 2 of the matches. This includes an away match against Liverpool where Chelsea won 5 corners and last time they played Spurs they had 8 corners, although this was under Tuchel.

Spurs concede 4.58 corners per match and will be pushed back by Chelsea’s possession-based style of play and with Conte on the sidelines again they may not be at their best. Chelsea’s improved performance levels mean confidence is not completely gone within his Chelsea squad and they will yet again focus on playing good quality football. Given Chelsea high corner counts recently I expect them to win at least 4 corners in this match.