Chelsea FC returned from international break to see off a combative Leicester City. The win revealed some lingering weaknesses that the Blues must address to move forward.
Leicester City are a combative, diligent Premier League side that serve as a good barometer for many of the trickier fixtures in the division. The Premier League is particularly difficult because while six wealthy, competitive and strong sides compete for the title, places 7-14 are also strong, professional and aggressive sides who can exploit the mistakes and weaknesses of any opponent.
Though Chelsea had the majority of possession against Leicester and the lion’s share of other statistics, they did not run away with the game. They revealed a certain weakness in having a large degree of statistical dominance but not converting that into goals scored. Stronger teams will punish Chelsea for that inability to capitalize, in the same way that Leicester almost did by coming back at 2-1.
Chelsea were not as defensively synchronized as they would have been with Gary Cahill. Antonio Ruddier is a phenomenal athlete who will eventually meld with the rest of the Chelsea back-line. But against Leicester he was left wanting on the left-side of Chelsea’s defense. He was deeply out of position on multiple occasions and would have been punished by a more precisely finishing set of strikers that Islam Slimani and Jamie Vardy. At some point Rudiger will mesh better with the rest of the Chelsea back line. At the moment, however, his communication with David Luiz is not at the level it needs to be.
The penalty that Thibaut Courtois conceded is a perfect example of why he is the most over-rated goalkeeper in world football. Courtois is good with hands and has decent reaction times, but his work with his feet is abysmal. Why he chose to tackle Vardy with his feet is a question for the footballing gods.
His judgement when tackling is frighteningly poor. For a player who strangely feels he is among the best in Europe, his judgement with tackles is woeful. He does not compare well to higher-quality keepers like Gianluigi Buffon, David De Gea, Hugo Lloris and Manuel Neuer. Courtois is the only one to commit fouls in his own box, he is by far the leader in punches (a barometer for bad judgement in keepers) and has the second-lowest number of saves per goal.
This displays a shockingly poor capacity of his own physical space and a rather ungraceful nature. Courtois is a weakness – that is the simple statistical cold truth. His conceding the penalty was pure bad judgment, and a perfect example of his limits as a goalkeeper.
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The team is also limited in their creativity. Chelsea need Eden Hazard on the field to provide the cutting edge that the rest of the team is missing. Cesc Fabregas is a good passer and helps pull the strings, but his requirement of two midfield minders weakens the team slightly. Cesc Fabregas plus a tidbit of defensive interest would be a top-three midfielder in Europe.
With only Fabregas to provide attacking creation, Chelsea are both predictable and tactically constrained. Eden Hazard needs to get back to his best for Chelsea soon.
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It is an excellent thing that Chelsea pulled off a win while handicapped against one of the better mid-table sides in the league. They showed that they have the necessary steel to grind out the sort of matches that define the Premier League. However, if they do not do better as a side in matches like these then they will be the ones that hand the title back to either of the Manchester clubs.