After a string of really tough matches, that one could call schedule losses, including an absurd two matches in three days, Chelsea got their groove back somewhat against West Ham United yesterday. They’d dropped two games to Everton and Wolves the previous week, their first losses since September and didn’t look right in either game. Against West Ham, things were still a bit stilted, but the break seems to have at least let the team get a little healthier and rested. Given how the team played against West Ham, I’m still reticent to call those schedule losses and they’ve still only really beaten bad teams.
With so many injuries and the schedule that Frank Lampard bitched about, this team was bound to dip at some point. To his credit along with the front office, this team has depth, though injuries have hampered that depth along with some odd managerial choices. In an effort to get Timo Werner going, Frank continues to play the increasingly cold striker, who just can’t finish despite copious chances. Frank is married to the tall center forward, either Olivier Giroud or Tammy Abraham and can’t bring himself to put Werner in his natural position in the center forward role. On Monday, with Christian Pulisic finally healthy enough to start after playing 90 minutes against Wolves, Lampard opted to play both Werner and Pulisic out of position to accommodate Abraham, who to be fair has been playing exceedingly well. The problem is that both Werner and Pulisic struggled in their respective wing positions, Pulisic on the right, Werner on the left. It’s curious too as Lampard was willing to play Kai Havertz later in the game on the right side, subbing him in for Pulisic. While Kai really just roamed and the game was basically done at that point, I can’t imagine either Kai or even Tammy would have been worse on the wing to accommodate Pulisic and Werner, both forward players trying to find their groove in the meat of the season. Werner now has nine straight games without a goal and only got an unintentional assist against West Ham as Tammy put away his flubbed shot. After Kai Havertz admitted the Premier League was tougher than the Bundesliga, it seems it’s also caught up with Timo, who just can’t finish despite chances and generally looks a step behind Premier League defenders. He’s also spent almost no time at his preferred position as Tammy’s improved significantly and Giroud’s been on fire. I just think while Lampard’s complaining about the run of games, he can rest guys like Giroud did today and give Timo a run at center forward. I don’t know, it might help things.
To Lampard’s credit, all-time teammate Cesar Azpilicueta proved strong evidence of the depth with his performance against West Ham. The aging right back, usually reserved for Champions League matches, got an increasingly rare 90 minutes today and just dazzled. At this point, Azpi is a lesser version of James, less pace, not as strong and without James’ unique crossing ability. He makes up for it by being completely tireless and intelligent, a field general when he’s out there. I swear he’s the only guy I’ve always heard on the broadcasts, barking instructions to his teammates. Against West Ham Ben Chilwell went out early, replaced by the very defensively deficient Emerson. Early on, West Ham sniffed around Azpi’s side of the field, but found it just as tough as Chilwell’s side. Once Chilwell went out, they honed in on the center where Jorginho was, along with Emerson’s left side. Azpi as stalwart, shutting down the West Ham attack on his side in a vintage, gave a delightful performance. West Ham had chances, with three goals disallowed so in some ways the back line got out lucky today. Azpi did have an absolute incredible take away as N’Golo Kante uncharacteristically slipped, allowing a bursting West Ham winger onto the ball, just about one on one with Edouard Mendy. Suddenly, Azpi flew in from the other side of the field to dispossess West Ham and clear the ball. I’ll give Frank credit on here; it’s clear James is ascending up the world ranks, getting better each week, but just like other areas of his team, the older players still provide quality depth and appear to be imparting the best of themselves onto their younger counterparts.
I can finally talk fully about a Christian Pulisic performance since he fully played today, a good 80 minutes. It’s been a tough year so going 90 and 80 in two straight games for him feels like a win; it’s just tough that he’s not scoring goals at the clip he can. A few months ago, he looked like one of the most dangerous wingers in the world, routinely making defenders look silly and seemingly on course to achieve an international reputation that an American hasn’t ever even sniffed. Since his injury in the FA Cup final, he’s battled to get his hamstring right, apparently never hearing about yoga and made a few appearances here and there. Fortunately, it seems like his fitness is more a strategy issue, rather than a chronic condition like countless other athletes. I guarantee Todd Gurley would love hamstring issues instead of the chronic knee condition that’s sapped his explosiveness. Pulisic legitimately looks a different speed than almost everyone he plays with and against and until he finds a way to care for himself properly, that great trait of pace might consistently cause him injuries woes. In this game, he did start to find his groove a bit, though playing without Havertz and Ziyech, his familiarity with Mason Mount, Kante and Tammy made up for it. To Frank’s credit, he had Werner and Pulisic switching sides throughout the game to try and throw what he could at West Ham as Chelsea only really sealed the game away late. Pulisic defers to the back to generate runs into the box on the right side, planting himself in the center, essentially a non-factor on crosses and headers since he’s like 5’7”. On the left side, he’s much more comfortable driving in and creating chances along with streaking breaks from the center like he did a couple times. Yesterday, he was instant offense and linked well with Werner and Tammy especially. It’s clear from his offensive intelligence that he can make his out of position play work, creating the second goal through a majestic run on the right then center, through the entire West Ham midfield, almost finishing it himself. I suppose based on his spacing skills that he’s taking all he can from Giroud, not always a prolific scorer, but a space god who does so many little things to create for his teammates. Pulisic does other stuff like get shots off, create corners and earns fouls a lot so it’s nice to see his game maturing as appeared today. Chelsea’s next game is against a paltry Arsenal team that’s battling relegation, so I’m really hoping we get to see Pulisic hang a banger against them. It would be nice for an American to light the stage of that London darby on fire.
The last thing I took from this game or rather that I’d like Chelsea to take from West Ham is Declan Rice. Rice is still a strong interest for Chelsea for the January transfer window and it’s crystal clear why as this game showed us. Rice ran this team yesterday from his midfield role, doing everything and feeling at times like he and maybe Aaron Cresswell were the only threats. Rice ate against Kante and shockingly is only 6’1” despite looking like a giant out there. His service to the forwards was divine and his finish on the first disallowed goal was scrumptious. I’ve rarely seen N’Golo Kante look worse than a defensive midfielder, but Rice just outplayed him today. His presence was all the more apparent with Jorginho in midfield, a sieve for West Ham and an architect of their disallowed goals. Jorginho operates really well when there’s a specific plan for the game, one that doesn’t involve the fast breaks that the offense depended upon in this game. If there’s any sort of pace in the contest, Jorginho will lose every time and seeing Rice out there made my eyes widen at the thought of getting him out there along with Kante and Mount in January. Kovacic provides nice depth in the midfield, but backing up Kante seems like a better role for him and though Chelsea needs left back depth, I’m not sure there would be any area of the field that opponents would feel comfortable attacking if Declan Rice was in our midfield. At this point Jorginho seems ill-fitted for this athletic team instead of Sarri’s more finesse team, the offense he was brought in for. I know depth in the midfield is essential this season, but Billy Gilmour is getting his legs under him and it might be time to let Arsenal overpay for Jorgi.
It’s a good win against a good team so I can’t really complain, but given how much hope this season purported, it’s tough with the injuries and honestly the center forward situation to see a team so out of sorts when it comes to personnel. I’m definitely tempering my expectations after this past two weeks, even going back to the Krasnodar game, but that’s ok. If they’d won the Premier League this year, it would have been way too soon. The issue is windows. They have one; almost every big team in the world is playing worse than they should. Bayern, Juventus, Barcelona, Liverpool, Manchester City; they all have struggled like the rest with overloaded schedules and in the case of the Premier League, only three subs. An English team isn’t winning Champions League this year because of the substitution issue, though Chelsea’s form did give credence to a potential window for a Premier League title run. With Liverpool rounding into better form and the other big dogs in the Premier League coming to terms with this season’s run of matches, it’s clear the Premier League title would be a miracle given recent Chelsea form in the face of personnel adversity. I think I’m just here for the ride this year, hopefully a top four finish and maybe even a quarter final Champions League appearance. That’s probably going to be a win for this team in 2020-2021.
Bo's Gamut 