Chelsea took on Manchester United at the Bridge on Saturday evening and these are 4 lessons learned from the game :
✓ Potter’s Selection Mistake :
Lining out in his usual 3-4-3 formation, Potter took on Ten Hag’s United team with a double pivot of Jorginho and RLC, leaving out arguably Chelsea’s best midfielder (Kovaciç).
With the unbalanced midfield proving too easy for United to play around, Graham Potter quickly rectified his error and made a quick change of both personnel and structure by substituting Cucurella who started as the LCB for Kovaciç.
The change saw Chelsea grab more control of the game and the influence of the Croat saw United struggle to create as many chances as they did prior to the substitution. Potter did show great personal awareness to spot the error and made amends fast enough before United punished his mistake.
✓ Chalobah, Cobham’s “new” Warrior :
In the preview of the game during Friday’s press conference, Graham Potter did pay huge obeisance to the attitude and application of Cobham’s academy graduate, Trevoh Chalobah after slotting in perfectly to provide cover for the injured Fofana.
Here against United, Chalobah showed and proved Potter spot on and rewarded the manager’s huge praise of being a “Warrior” as he battled hard and victoriously against Marcus Rashford.
With a tackle success rate of 100% and duels won success of also 100%, Chalobah was almost impregnable by the United attack. His fierce presence at the back helped shut out the reds for huge portions of the game before a 94th minute header by Casemiro leveled things.
Trevoh won 50% of his aerial duels and also struck the bar in what was arguably the former Lorient’s man best performance of this season.
With England’s manager Gareth Southgate set to name a “Big” list of about 50 players to be later cut down to 25, Chalobah sure has every right to be named on that list with his present form.
✓ Raheem Sterling’s Poor form, a worry or not?
Brought in to be the difference maker and the new talisman of the team. It is presently a cause of worry that Sterling seems to be struggling with each passing game.
Playing as part of the front three today for Potter before the switch, Sterling was stationed on the left hand side of attack today and his impact was next to nothing in the first half. After the switch to a midfield diamond of four players, which saw Mount drop back into midfield, Sterling occupied the forward position alongside Aubameyang and played on the right as part of a front two.
Despite playing everywhere across the frontline even as a temporary “false 9” after the substitution of Aubameyang, Sterling’s game was marred with errors and nonchalance.
Poor first touches and control have become the norm for the England international and in a game where he got one-on-one with his markers at times, it was staggering to see the former Man City wideman to end with 0 completed dribbles out of the three he attempted.
Raheem’s poor game wasn’t highlighted enough there as he also had only one accurate cross of the 4 attempted by him, amounting to a cross success rate of 25%. Sterling also lacked the effort to help out the team as he didn’t track back or press aggressively enough while losing 2 of his 6 duels.
The games are coming thick and fast now and it will be a huge surprise if Sterling keeps putting out numbers such as this and maintains his starter’s berth in the team with a certain Christian Pulisic showing good signs off the bench.
✓ Azpilicueta’s decline, a demoralizing sight :
Captain, leader, Warrior and winner were the words to rightly describe Spain international and Chelsea Legend, Caesar Azpilicueta.
The first and only player so far to have a clean sweep of all the titles available at club level for Chelsea, it is hugely worrisome and a pity to see the once reliable defender struggle.
With the continued absence of James due to a knee injury, Caesar Azpilicueta is tasked with providing cover for the Englishman and the Spaniard struggles to do so efficiently nowadays.
Starting off as the RWB before switching to play RB, Azpi offered absolutely nothing going forward for the Blues and got caught out a couple of times dwindling on the ball.
Playing WB means keeping the width of the team and helping out while defending at the same time but Azpi being on the wrong side of 30 now, he seems to have lost those extra yards of pace and stamina needed to cover so much ground as a fit James will normally do for Chelsea.
His poor crosses killed a few promising attacks for the blues while his usual strength of strong defending in one-v-one situations also now seem something of the past, Azpi recorded a success rate of only 20% in his ground duels while his form moving forward is well documented with a zero percentage for accurate long balls and crosses. With James seemingly unable to play a full season without a timeout on the sideline, Chelsea and Potter have got to provide ample cover for the former Wigan man with a new RWB a necessity now.
Man of the Match : Chalobah 8/10
There is no time for the Blues for the dwell long on this game as Salzburg away on Tuesday is next up for the Londoners as the UCL group stages get into its final straw. We wish Potter and the boys quick recovery ahead of the game and all the best in Austria. Kick off is 5:45 pm, UK time
