Tottenham should rest players vs. Chelsea on Tuesday night
Tottenham need to rest players on Tuesday night.
As a lifelong Tottenham Hotspur fan, it’s hard for me to write that Spurs shouldn’t play their strongest lineup in a game against Chelsea, but Jose Mourinho hasn’t got much choice.
Due to the awful scheduling and the EFL refusing to help Spurs out given their Europa League fixtures this week (and last week), Tottenham can’t put their strongest team forward in all competitions.
On Tuesday night, only two days after their 1-1 draw with Newcastle, Spurs host Chelsea in the EFL Cup. Chelsea played on Saturday so have additional rest, while Tottenham played on Sunday as well as last Thursday. To make matters worse, Spurs are in action again 48 hours after this game against Maccabi Haifa in the Europa League playoff round.
The simple fact is that the EFL Cup is at the bottom of the priority list. For Spurs, the Premier League and Europa League takes priority, and then the FA Cup likely ranks ahead of the EFL Cup.
Son Heung-min suffered a hamstring injury on Sunday against Newcastle.
Mourinho can’t afford to risk losing Harry Kane, Giovani Lo Celso, or any other star players on Tuesday night. Playing so many games in a short space of time can be an added injury risk. Kane should be rested for a big game on Thursday night, or even rested all week and take the gamble that Spurs can win without him in the Europa League.
For the EFL, it would’ve been easy to reschedule some of these games, including last week’s game against Leyton Orient, which was called off as Orient had a number of players test positive for COVID-19. After all, the quarter-finals won’t be held until late December. So what’s the rush to get these games finished? It’s certainly not ticket sales.
And if the shortened season means it’s impossible to reschedule any of these games, then perhaps it was the wrong decision to even play the EFL Cup this season.
But that’s a debate for another day. Spurs will meet Chelsea on Tuesday night in a busy week. Unfortunately, with a game two days prior and games two and five days later, Tottenham don’t have much choice but to rest most of their starters.