In a fiery London derby, Chelsea overcame West Ham 2-1 to take the blues 1 point ahead of Liverpool and 4 behind Manchester City, despite a rocky start to the season. Here is what we learned from today’s match..
◦ Set-Pieces questions remain unanswered :
In recent matches, Chelsea have looked all over the place while defending and attacking set-pieces. With four goals now conceded from set-pieces, Tuchel and his coaching staff have huge questions to answer as the problems linger.
Chelsea’s set-piece problem isn’t in the defensive phase alone as the blues have also struggled to put quality balls into the penalty area. Here against West Ham, Chelsea had 10 corner kicks but didn’t test Fabianski with any as West Ham snuffed out every danger Chelsea posed from set-pieces. With games against more physical sides still to come, TT and Barry have their hands full in the quest of solving Chelsea’s set-piece problems.
◦ Silva-Chilwell Connect Proves fruitful, again :
With Chelsea seemingly chasing another lost course trying to come from behind to win a game, Tuchel made changes to his team and one such in-game substitution was the introduction of Ben Chilwell. Chilwell’s introduction meant Chelsea had another goal-scoring threat on the pitch with the England international known for getting crucial goals from the LWB position.
Chilwell’s runs from deep are mostly only seen and successfully picked out by Thiago Silva from the center of the Chelsea defence and that was the case here again at the Bridge with Thiago’s long raking pass picking out the marauding Englishman who got lucky with his head control before poking the ball past Fabianski in the West Ham goal. With Chilwell getting back to full fitness, it remains to see how well Silva continues to pick out the 50 million pound signing from Leicester City.
◦ Fofana impressive on debut :
Chelsea’s latest defensive recruitment from Leicester City, Wesley Fofana took to the pitch for the first time in Chelsea’s blue, lining up on the right side of Tuchel’s back three alongside Thiago Silva and Kalidou Koulibaly. The Frenchman who is reported to have joined the blues in a 70 million pound deal came out on top in most of his duels with 6 out of 8 duels won while also having 3 successful tackles and 2 clearances.
The former Saint-Etienne defender also showed his energy and speed while tracking back into the right hand channel and also when pressing up front with 6 ball recoveries. Fofana’s solid debut wasn’t all about his off the ball work as the 21-year old showed his ball playing skills with 5 passes into the final 3rd and a 90% pass accuracy all pointing towards a successful debut for the French defender.
◦ Broja Fights On :
A player fresh from signing a new long-term contract of 6 years in mid-week, Armando Broja looked like a player on a mission after his introduction on the 60th minute mark.
The Albanian came on to spearhead the attack and he once again showed brilliant glimpses of his strength and fight up top for the blues.
Broja gave Chelsea a presence up top with his power and physique proving a different kind of challenge to the West Ham backline. Broja’s presence also helped free up Raheem Sterling who dropped deeper than usual to influence play and help link up the midfield to the attack.
Havertz and Mount were also beneficials of Broja’s presence up top with the former getting his first goal of the new season after a brilliant near-post finish to give Chelsea a scrappy win in the derby.
◦ Mendy’s Shaky gloves :
Chelsea and Tuchel’s favored number one goalie, Edou Mendy has been in somewhat of a rough patch lately and with only one clean sheet recorded so far this season, many have called for Mendy to be dropped and it wouldn’t be injustice if that were to happen. With standards seemingly dropping each week, Kepa must be on his toes looking to take full advantage if he was to be thrusted into action anytime soon.
Weak clearances whether with his hands or legs have remained a huge concern for Mendy and with many siting the Senegalese shot-stopper at fault for his weak clearance for West Ham’s first goal and also his lucky escape after he was put at the line of fire by Recce James. Mendy certainly has to up his game with Kepa now sure to have a shout if his errors persist.
Man of the Match;
Chilwell 9/10
Next up for Chelsea is a trip to Zagreb to face Kovaciç’s boyhood club, Dynamo Zagreb on Tuesday night as the UCL begins.
