The Blues were at home at this week facing Crystal Palace, hoping to find some firmer footing after a letdown last week at West Bromwich Albion. With the new signings finally fully integrated in the squad we saw what this team will mostly look like from a personnel standpoint this season. Chelsea lined up with a 4-2-3-1 and Frank Lampard appears to be figuring out his best lineups for different matchups based on what we’ve seen the first few weeks of the season. Tammy Abraham started up top as the lone striker, with Timo Werner and Callum Hudson-Odoi on the wings, Kai Havertz in the central attacking role, Jorginho and N’Golo Kante covering the middle, Ben Chilwell and Cesar Azpilicueta at the left and right back positions and Kurt Zouma, Thiago Silva at the back with the new goalie Edouard Mendy. Most importantly, Christian Pulisic finally made his way to the bench to be used as a guaranteed substitute by Lampard.
Chelsea started this game like almost any other, cautiously. Throughout the first thirty minutes, Crystal Palace barely got the ball over midfield as the new Cheleas players spent most of that time learning to play with each other and building chemistry. It was so evident that the players were actively feeling each other out on the pitch, learning different movements, spacing and communication. Chilwell looked the most dangerous, offering spicy crosses for Tammy and Werner along with very well taken corners throughout the first half that various teammates struggled to get under. His calming presence on the left side stuck out most prominently to the chaos that’s been that side of the field pretty much since I’ve been watching this team for the past three years. Crystal Palace wasn’t providing wild challenges down that side of the field, but whenever they did, he calmly intercepted passes, cleared the ball and generally looked at ease with both his offense and defensive responsibilities. Havertz clearly got a full pass to roam wherever he wanted. He, Werner and Chilwell attempted several times to pass their way through to the goal, but Havertz also ran many of the attempts through the midfield as well as covering back later in the first half as Crystal Palace managed a corner or two. Havertz was the most creative player on the field yesterday, providing such good space and clearly building his relationships with the other players through a game like this where the opponent allowed it.
I was delighted to see throughout the first half that Jorginho hasn’t lost his ability to dominate games in the middle of the field. With Mateo Kovacic looking a little shaky lately, Lampard went back to Jorgi, who’d mostly been absent during Project Restart. His transfer was rumored throughout the offseason and still is, but I really hope they hold onto him because at times he’s the brain of the entire build up to the attack. Havertz was still getting comfortable in this game, so Jorginho took it upon himself to pass wonderfully, setting up Tammy in the box on a long pass and another which earned a corner. His defensive skills have always been suspect so he loses time to Kovacic because of that, but with a bolstered back line and a healthy Kante, Jorginho could once again flourish as he did in the early goings last year. This offense has lacked creativity, and with its most creative and dangerous player Pulisic (I’ll say it) injury prone, it’s important for Jorginho to be there as Havertz gets up to speed.
As the first half waned, Crystal Palace had a few promising chances and while the majority of the new signings looked calm, Mendy spent such little time moving at all that on his first corner, he failed to assertively attack the ball which was mildly concerning. He literally signed on to alleviate that lack of skill from Kepa Arrizabalaga who would not go get the ball. Mendy is 6’6” so I’ll chock it up to nerves and lack of time on the ball, but I really didn’t love that. I did love how confident and again calming Thiago Silva was at the back, playing basically as a sweeper. He deftly stepped into a few breaks from Crystal Palace and made me feel so rested as he distributed up the field confidently. He looks much more comfortable back there than his previous outing and should be a mainstay back there given his leadership as well. Chelsea ended the first half with some decent chances on Chilwell crosses and Jorginho long balls, but mostly just got to know each other.
With the second half underway, Chelsea needed to move the ball across the field quicker and obviously they got the message from both me yelling at the TV and the announcers. Unfortunately, a player like Mason Mount plays Lampard’s system so well, but I found that this team seemed to run so much more smoothly without him this game. Lampard seems to want to let his players cook and while Mount can do that, he so rigidly follows his coaches gameplan, that it gums up the wheels of ingenuity that players like Havertz, Pulisic and Werner are there to produce. Hudson-Odoi throughout the first half looked out of place at times, doing the ball stopping routine that he clearly learned from Willian, but not much more than that. He was a somewhat surprise start this week, especially given the mutual interest for him to join Bayern Munich, but like many on this team with transfer interest, he provides depth and he’s only 19. He’ll get minutes this season and should just stay, but maybe I’m being selfish from a team perspective. His efforts in the second half led to a great cross that ended up with a Chilwell finish into the goal in the 50th minute. It was a natural progression from the overdrive in which the team kicked itself into during the second half and Chilwell got his reward for being the most complete player on the field for this game.
Chelsea continued with the critical passing that stretched the packed in defense of Crystal Palace with chances by Zouma off a header from a Chilwell corner. Jorginho continued getting the ball forward effectively in good areas and Zouma even got the deep passing game going. He continues to flash the skills to be the David Luiz successor on long balls to the wings. I know that’s not the game plan, but at times Chelsea has to play that way and Zouma can get the ball up. With Pulisic and eventually Ziyech on those wings, Zouma’s skill for this can be used at times for instant offense. I was glad to see him employ it a couple of times today and in the 66th minute, he converted a header this time from Chilwell again for Chelsea’s second goal. Continued pressure and Tammy’s increasingly better Giroudish air game earned Chelsea a penalty in the 76th minute, which Jorginho dispatched pleasantly with his trademark skip pass shot. With Havertz all over the place, his attacking efforts earned another penalty just 6 minutes after the last one. Oddly enough, Tammy wanted it and Werner, who’d been interested in the first penalty also inquired. Azpilicueta had to put his foot down, giving the ball back to Jorginho. It didn’t seem like a big deal and after the game, Lampard played it down saying everything was fine, but it’s not awesome that your players don’t know what the story is when it comes to penalties. Jorginho and Willian have been the consistent takers since Hazard left and they really earned it with their success on them. With Willian gone and Pulisic (the eventual penalty guy) still out, it’s Jorginho’s to take. Lampard needs to really work on a certain aspect of coaching the breeds respect for elder players. Silva was brought in to manufacture some of this senior leadership and I’m glad for Azpilicueta at times stepping in, but Lampard really needs to assert himself daily so a situation like that doesn’t crop up.
With a fourth goal off Jorginho’s penalty take, my only thought now turned to the new number 10, Christian Pulisic and the promised substitution into this game for him to get his feet wet from a two month injury spell. I got my wish in the 83rd minute with him and Kovacic replacing Hudson-Odoi and Kante, respectively. Pulisic shot out of a cannon. He burst onto balls, made strong challenges and I genuinely thought he was going to score like two goals based on his pace. He linked up with Werner in the 85th minute on a wonderful run down the left side, with Pulisic just offside on a hard angle shot he took. My big worry with him though is this injury thing not going away because he plays so quickly and goes so damn hard at everything. It’s like Derrick Rose, who’s athleticism and movement made him prone to injury. Rose moved with such abandon that you could see any hard movement might break him. I think it’s a flexibility thing because some athletes bend as they move and you can tell there’s a give on their joints as they make moves, get hit, cut, take off sprinting, etc. Rose didn’t have that bend with his movements and his body jerked on his cuts as he slashed towards the basket and you could almost feel the stress on his joints through the screen watching him. Pulisic, like Rose, doesn’t bend with his movements and I worry that unless his pliability improves with some yoga, he might be soft-tissue injury prone. At least a soccer field gives a little bit unlike a basketball court.
The game ended a few minutes later; a resoundingly good win considering all the new faces. My final thought on this game is that the least effective offensive player today was Timo Werner, probably one of Europe’s best strikers. He’s young, but very experienced and probably is playing out of position. Lampard is lying to himself about keeping Tammy in the central striker role over Werner, so I think when Pulisic takes up that left side, he’ll fall into place nicely. The point though is that Chelsea won 4-0 with a prolific striker playing just ok. It’s an observation on the future because this team believes it can compete next year at the earliest for a Premier League title. If 4-0 to an admittedly middle table team is feasible for Chelsea, who was offensively challenged last year, I think other teams will need to reassess how seriously they take this attack because once the pieces fall where they belong, there’s no limit to the offensive firepower they can throw around.
Bo's Gamut 