Tottenham defender Jan Vertonghen was earlier in the season called as the disgrace to football by Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho for his involvement in the sending off of Fernando Torres when the two sides met each other at White Hart Lane. Torres was given a second yellow card for his challenge on Vertonghen, but the defender appeared to go down a little too easily. Replays showed that Torres had not touched him and that he went down so as to get the striker sent off. Vertonghen will be coming up against Chelsea for the first time since that incident.

Tottenham will be the visitors to Stamford Bridge on Sunday looking to improve their form, which has been mediocre in recent weeks. As a result, they have lost the race to keep in touch with Liverpool for a top four spot. Liverpool have gone on to become title contenders after moving in within four points of table leaders Chelsea. Even though Manchester City are in the fourth place, they have a couple of games in hand over Tottenham. Vertonghen has raised the Torres issue ahead of the match and says that he is not prepared to talk about it.

Mourinho has been playing mind games with several managers over the last few weeks and Vertonghen does not want to get involved in them.

“I did not respond to Mourinho at the time – and I won’t do it now. I don’t want to add fuel to the fire in the run-up to the match. I don’t want to go into a war of words with Mourinho. I just want to prove myself on the field. We’re going to Stamford Bridge for the three points. If we want to reach the Champions League we have to win this game,” said Vertonghen ahead of the match.