Former Tottenham boss Tim Sherwood has torn into Jose Mourinho for his side’s ‘absolutely disgusting’ display against Chelsea.
Frank Lampard became the first manager in Premier League history to taste victory against a Mourinho side home and away in a single season with Chelsea’s 2-1 win against Spurs at Stamford Bridge on Saturday.
The Blues took the lead through Olivier Giroud and doubled their advantage after half-time when Marcos Alonso arrowed a fine effort into the bottom corner.
Spurs had just four shots on target and it took an Antonio Rudiger own goal in the 89th minute for the visitors to half the deficit.
Mourinho has bemoaned the absence of Harry Kane and Heung-Min Son but Sherwood believes he’s using their injuries as an easy get-out and says there’s no excuse for such negative tactics.
‘Tottenham were absolutely disgusting,’ Sherwood told Premier League Productions.
‘They were so bad. The negative approach. Yes they have injuries to Son and to Kane, Mourinho keeps reminding us of that.
‘But they’ve got Bergwijn there who can run in behind, they’ve got Moura who has pace. If they’ve got anything they’ve got pace. They both got 15 goals last season which is not the end of the world.
‘You have to find a different way. As a coach sometimes you can’t say ‘oh we don’t have a striker’ and throw the towel in.
‘If you said to Jose beforehand: ‘Would you take a 0-0?’ he would have taken your arms off. It’s not about that, it’s a London derby! It’s for all of those fans, you need to show more of an attacking intent.’
Chelsea had a similarly depleted starting XI with the likes of Kurt Zouma, N’Golo Kante and Christian Pulisic missing, while Tammy Abraham was only fit enough for a spot on the bench.
It was an opportunity for Spurs to leapfrog the Blues in the battle for a Champions League spot but Mourinho insisted afterwards that he was ‘proud’ of his team’s effort.
‘I have no complaints about my players. That is for sure,’ said Mourinho.
‘The result could be different yeah. Could be 3-1, could be 2-2, could be different, but difficult for my players to do different to what they did.
‘So I think that the only thing I can say is with what we have at the moment, the power we have or don’t have, the almost unique situation we’re living in at the moment, it’s very difficult to do better, especially when the opponent scores before us.’
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