The last game before the first international break of the year, Chelsea were by held by Everton to an entertaining 2-2 draw at the Bridge.
Here are 3 lessons learnt from an entertaining Stamford Bridge affair :
Felix proves doubters wrong :
Since his mouth-watering first couple of games against Fulham and West Ham, many Chelsea fans have called for Felix to be dropped due to his perceived “inefficiency”.
Starting off here as the “false 9”, Joao Felix led the team superbly with a showing sure to have silenced most of the crowd online calling for him to be dropped from the team.
Dropping deep to link up with teammates with incisive one-two touches, receiving on the half-turn with impressive delicate touches and his all-round aura on the pitch made Felix a joy to watch. Winning 4 of his 5 ground duels, boasting a 100% shot accuracy, and completing 50% of his dribbles all made for a good outing in the “false 9” position for Joao Felix.
His goal also opened the floodgates and it came as such a huge relief to see the Portuguese sensation back on the scoring charts.
Potter’s early submission back-fires :
Barely scaling through with the same tactic in recent matches, Graham’s Potter habit of turning into a “safe-shell” early in games where Chelsea take the lead finally back-fired today as Everton came back fighting hard from the dead.
Turning to the bench to call on the tenacious Conor Gallagher was the blueprint of Potter taking the “safe option” once again, but this time it back-fired real bad. The early substitution of Christian Pulisic in the 61st minute was understandable even if the American who made his first start since injury was really good on the night.
With a player like Mudryk on the bench, it was quite evident Potter was content with the 1-0 scoreline rather than trying to kill the opponent off with a second goal. Despite Gallagher’s recent decent showings off the bench, the danger Pulisic posed caused the Everton players to think twice before bumping forward down their right until the substitution of Conor.
Many may rightly argue that having Mudryk come on in the place of Felix also was the better option as his pace could’ve troubled Everton in transition with space opening up as they searched for an equalizer late into the game.
Another lesson for Potter in his ever evolving Chelsea career.
Koulibaly’s rush of blood a huge concern :
A master of the art of defending, it is pitiful to see Kalidou Koulibaly still make basic errors in his defending. Over-aggression, poor calculation and timing of tackles, and lack of recovery pace all have Koulibaly struggling at times with the Premier league seemingly being too difficult to adapt to for the former Napoli captain.
Starting off in the CCB position due to Thiago Silva’s absence, Koulibaly was bullied by 22-year old Ellis Simms on his way to scoring.
Rash tackles and miscalculations in duels are Koulibaly’s major deficiency and despite being solid in the past few games, those ugly parts of his game reared their ugly faces again for the umpteenth time this season.
High expectations are had for KK but tonight’s showing did leave much to be desired of the experienced center back.
Man of the match – Kai Havertz 8/10.
The international break comes up next as players move far and wide in representation of their various countries while those not selected are kept back at Cobham to continue training.
