Urgency required – Ajitesh Rasgotra
Chelsea have won two and lost two of their four pre-season games so far. (Official games, that is. Apparently they beat some local Austrian side randomly in between.) However, their wins haven’t been wholly convincing and their losses have been worrying.
One of the main issues that has unfortunately carried over from the disastrous 2015/16 season is a lack of urgency. The Rapid Vienna game was the Blues first while their opponents were due to open their league campaign that weekend. Hence, a sluggish display was understandable.
RZ Pellets, meanwhile, were just a poor outfit and Chelsea did the bare-minimum by picking up the win. The Liverpool game drew a mixed response, with some praising an impressive Blues performance and others criticising it for this very reason: a lack of urgency.
Real Madrid danced around Antonio Conte’s men, even toying with them at times. There was no real pressure from Chelsea and the Spaniards’ dominance was not fairly reflected in the 3-2 scoreline.
The worrying thing is that the Blues only have a clash with Werder Bremen left after this AC Milan game. They are two matches away from the start of the Premier League and they look like they have just returned to training. This is not true for everyone (Victor Moses and Juan Cuadrado immediately spring to mind), but it is for an alarming number of individuals.
This is the last factor that you would have expected to be of concern in an Antonio Conte team. Hopefully, the AC Milan game will allay any growing fears.
Next: Ruben Loftus-Cheek