A Blue Up North reviews Chelsea’s opening day victory away at Huddersfield Town.
With the new Premier League season firing up into action this weekend, The Blues started their campaign with a trip away to Huddersfield Town. The hosts surpassed expectations last season with survival in their first ever season in the Premier League, which was helped with a strong start to their campaign, including victories in their first 2 matches.
Manager David Wagner has lightly tinkered with his squad over the summer as they hope to build on finishing in 16th place, 4 points clear of relegation. His team may not contain any star names, but play with a togetherness that capitalises on their energy and effort. This helps them to be resolute and a tough side to break down, as The Blues had witnessed at Stamford Bridge last season.
However, this has been a far more significant summer for Chelsea. Ex Napoli boss, Maurizio Sarri has arrived with instructions to stamp his fast passing, attacking style of football all over the club. Player changes has been fairly minimal, but hugely significant.
But how would this change of footballing philosophy affect in the team for the early matches. Sarri may have had a fairly full preseason with some of his squad, but 6 players only returned this week after their World Cup exploits. With not only a change to the style of play, Sarri has reverted his Chelsea side back to a 4-3-3 formation.
With all this in mind, the manager would not necessarily name his strongest line up but favour the players he has been training with for the longest. However newly signed goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga made his debut only 2 days after joining the club. Also, both N’Golo Kante and Willian were brought into the starting line up with less than 1 full week of preseason under their belts.
Sarri’s former midfield general at Napoli, Jorginho, also made his debut as the anchor midfielder. This meant a new role for Kante. The Frenchman has previously used his ability to win the ball on a regular basis to concentrate on breaking up the opponent’s possession. With Jorginho lying in the deeper role, Kante was asked to get more involved in The Blues’s forward play.
And with Ross Barkley playing as the most advanced midfielder there was a clear path of progression to transfer the ball forward as quickly as possible. This is a key change for a side who used to concentrate more on using wing backs to advance play from defence to attack.
For the first half an hour of the match play ebbed and flowed as both sides had spells in the ascendancy. But with Pedro regularly moving across the pitch to join Willian on the left flank, the Chelsea attack looked strangely one sided. However the hosts failed to adjust and eventually Sarri’s side were creating the better chances.
These included a delightful cross from Willian for Kante’s opening goal and an Alonso run into the box which led to Jorginho’s penalty. And with a 2-0 half time lead, The Blues then took complete control in the second half. Sarri surprised everyone watching on with his first substitution. Most probably expected the introduction of Eden Hazard as he tries to get up to match fitness. However Ruben Loftus-Cheek was introduced in potentially a positive nod to the young Englishman being favoured by the manager.
However it was the arrival of the Belgian wizard that became the icing on the cake. He was only on the pitch for 14 minutes but his dribbling and skill set bamboozled the home defence. As he charged forward with the ball, the Huddersfield midfield were left in his wake and their defence just froze. The resulting wide open spaces were a treasure trove for Pedro who’s deft finish rounded off the scoring.
With clear signs already emerging from the team of Sarri’s philosophy, along with a number of positive personal performances while the players who need to make the biggest adjustments in how they play also doing well, this was as promising a start as the Italian manger would have hoped for. Sarri has rightly stated that it will take a matter of months for the side to be near their on a regular basis and maybe a match up against potentially one of the least dangerous sides in the league helped, but the overall standard of the team was better than we all expected.
Kepa looks like an all round top quality keeper. Not only is he a great shot stopper, but he is comfortable with the ball at his feet, his distribution is very good, while he communicates constantly with his defenders and commands his area well. He could be £71 million very well spent.
Rudiger and Luiz played well and looked very assured in defence, Alonso is already adapting to his new position but needs to keep working on his positional sense. Azpilicueta is Azpilicueta. No matter what he is asked to do, he always gives it everything and never falls below a 7.5 out of 10.
Jorginho is incredible with his awareness of all around him. He is able to win the ball and pass to a teammate with the same single touch. Yes, Kante was dispossessed a couple of times by players twice the size of him, but his influence further up the field will clearly help The Blues attack. Ross Barkley looked like he hasn’t played much football in the last 12 months but showed signs of how well he can fit into the new system.
Pedro and especially Willian regularly ran at their opponents, while Morata already looked more influential than he did for much of last season. The striker started to occupy 3 defenders as he kept on his feet far more. With a few brief glimpses of his fast feet, including when he unfortunately dragged his shot wide after creating an opening in the first few minutes, there were signs that he will be less frustrating to watch.
So another opening day victory (already 3 points better than last season following our home defeat to Burnley 1 year ago), a clean sheet (Huddersfield only had 1 attempt on target all match), and the new manager’s influence already taking shape, the signs are promising for The Blues.
However, this was only 1 match and could have had a different story had Mounie’s header hit the net and not the post. Arsenal at home next Saturday will be a much tougher test for Sarri and his team. But for now we can focus on a job well done in West Yorkshire.
Written by Jon Ellis, home and away season ticket holder. Follow him on Twitter @ClitheroeBlue
