A Blue Up North reviews our quarter final victory over a plucky Bournemouth side.
This week’s midweek fixtures saw the quarter finals of this season’s League Cup, with Chelsea hosting Bournemouth on Wednesday evening. These ties saw all the Premier League managers play around with their squads and make wholesale changes to their starting line ups.
Antonio Conte himself made 8 changes, including starting with the youngsters Ethan Ampadu in central defence and Kenedy as the left wing back as cover for the suspended Marcos Alonso. Meanwhile Eddie Howe made 7 changes to his side as they tried to halt a poor run of 6 matches without a win.
It was a big night for Ampadu. His first appearances had seen him deployed as a holding central midfielder, protecting the back line but this was his first start actually in defence. His first major contribution was a clumsy tackle of Jermain Defoe for which he was rightly booked. However, despite playing the rest of the match on a nervous tightrope, he gave a match winning performance with regular interceptions and perfectly timed tackles all done with an air of maturity that belies his 17 years of age.
Potentially 2 of the most impressive elements this season have been the form of Andreas Christensen, who has slotted in as David Luiz’s replacement and is now deemed too important to the side that he is rested for this tie and the emergence of the ex Exeter City player as a more than adequate back up to the team.
The home side started as though they were favourites and in the 13th minute Willian opened the scoring. A flowing team effort saw Michy Batshuayi feed Kenedy, whose back heel sent in Cesc Fabregas, who squared for the in form Brazilian to finish. Surely this was the catalyst to a comfortable victory but the much-changed home side struggled to assert themselves against The Cherries as the match wore on.
Conte was clearly getting frustrated with plenty of what he was seeing and in particular with Batshauyi and Willian. Both were substituted as well as Pedro as the manager altered his 3-4-3 formation to a 3-5-2 in an attempt to gain more control in midfield. What probably added to his frustrations was that at only 1-0 up and his side sitting further and further back inviting more Bournemouth pressure he needed to use his star player replacements instead of giving Dujon Sterling and Callum Hudson-Odoi a chance for a run out.
Morata Returns as a Match Winner
The changes made all the difference in the end. After the visitors pressure finally paid off when they equalised in the last minute, it was the strength of character shown by The Blues that allowed them to strike back immediately. A beautiful dummy and turn by Alvaro Morata allowed the ball to reach Eden Hazard, whose back heal found Morata in plenty of space near the penalty spot and the striker cleverly squeezed the ball under the advancing Artur Boruc.
The final sour note was when referee Lee Mason booked the Spaniard’s goal celebration which means the striker is suspended for Saturday’s trip to Goodison Park. Whether it was for kicking the ball away or his joyous tribute to his newly pregnant wife is diminished by the lack of common sense when a high profile striker, who hasn’t netted since 2 December, finally scores a late winner in a tight quarter final match.
Although Conte will be a little disappointed with some of what he saw from his fringe players, overall the manager will be very pleased to have reached the semi finals whilst fully relying on multiple changes to his side and being able to rest some of his key players.
Strength of character and getting that winning touch whilst not dominating a match fully are important elements for the resolve required to win trophies and that, after all, is why the Italian is at Chelsea. Long may that continue.
Written by Jon Ellis. Follow him on Twitter @ClitheroeBlue
