Callum Hudson-Odoi is dominating Chelsea headlines after his performance against Arsenal, and with good reason. But a slew of other Blues played on Wednesday night, and several others left important impressions.
Chelsea’s last batch of World Cup players are about to rejoin the club in time for the final march towards the end of the transfer window and the beginning of the Premier League season. With two preseason games remaining (including the Community Shield), Maurizio Sarri will need to give Eden Hazard, Thibaut Courtois, Michy Batshuayi and Gary Cahill some playing time, both for the practice and for his assessments.
This means many young players and fringe players have already made the bulk of their statements for inclusion in the first team. Here are a few takeaways from the game against Arsenal.
1. Alvaro Morata needs to escape the quicksand
Alvaro Morata and Callum Hudson-Odoi are almost the exact inverse of each other at this point. Hudson-Odoi’s impressive preseason took another major step forward against Arsenal. Morata’s struggles took another downturn.
Hudson-Odoi drew a penalty from Hector Bellerin shortly after Chelsea went up 1-0. Morata stepped up to take it, presumably in a move to let him score an easy goal and feel a rush of confidence. Instead, he took a weak shot that Petr Cech saved easily. Not that Morata looked particularly threatening beforehand, but for the remainder of his appearance he looked no better off than he did in the spring.
Morata cut his usual dejected, frustrated figure. Hudson-Odoi gave Morata good options in the box, but the Spaniard could not connect.
The striker is in psychological quicksand. Every attempt to escape simply makes him sink in deeper. A penalty kick is the rope to let yourself be pulled to safety, and he missed that, too.
Maurizio Sarri is much more of a smile-and-backslap manager than Antonio Conte. Perhaps Sarri’s warmth can put Morata at ease more than Antonio Conte’s fire and passion could. But Conte was Morata’s champion at Chelsea, and Morata pledged himself to Conte even before arriving. If those two could not get the best out of each other, Sarri has a difficult task.
Chelsea should not yet take the L on Alvaro Morata. But if Michy Batshuayi wants to be the starting striker, he should be smelling blood in the water.
2. Throw Marcin Bulka into the deep end
Despite conceding the equalizer and coming nowhere close any of Arsenal’s penalty kicks, Marcin Bulka had an impressive 13 minutes at the end of the game. He made two powerful stops, including one low and to his side from Alex Iwobi. It was the sort of shot Thibaut Courtois almost always lets in.
His reaction to the block on Iwobi was as impressive as the save itself. His face showed the same angry exhilaration, the “get that s–t out of my house you are NOT scoring on me” visceral charge, the thrill of denying another man his goal that you see on Gianluigi Buffon.
If Chelsea cannot come to terms with Thibaut Courtois, they should be decisive and make Bulka their starter this year. Yes, they will need to temper their expectations. But their expectations should already be tempered. They missed out on the few available replacements for Courtois, meaning they are prepared to go into the season with an unreliable wantaway.
Scott made a strong case yesterday for keeping Thibaut Courtois as a meal ticket to the Champions League. Courtois is far more likely to backstop the Blues to the Champions League than Bulka or anyone else they can buy this late. The Blues can use him for a top-four finish, and the money they make by rejoining the Champions League will offset losing him on a free transfer.
But Chelsea already make enough short-sighted, utilitarian moves. For once they have the opportunity (several opportunities, given Callum Hudson-Odoi up front) to play the long game. Marcin Bulka could be a part of that. Not as Plan A, that should still be Courtois. But if Courtois wants to play hardball, the Blues have enough of an alternative in Bulka that they can walk away from the negotiations and tell Real Madrid to name their price for the Belgian.
3. Chelsea will need Gary Cahill in the side
Gary Cahill took his full allocation of well-deserved post-World Cup time off. Despite the usual howls about him having no place under Maurizio Sarri and this being his final year (for real this time we mean it, they say), his absence is showing in the defence.
Maurizio Sarri may like dynamic, good-humoured playmakers, but sooner or later he will see through David Luiz. With so many key players missing, so many fringe players in the squad and a new manager implementing a very new system, the whole side is in disarray. Every new XI in every game is a trial-by-error learning experience. This environment is camouflage for David Luiz. Once the season starts, if Sarri still includes Luiz in the lineup, he will learn very quickly what Antonio Conte learned last season. Luiz can do a lot of things, but Premier League centre-back is not one of them.
Andreas Christensen looks as shaky as he did in the second half of last season. His World Cup duties limited his ability to take a long mental rest. Nor has he been able to bulk up physically. Alexandre Lacazette had his way with Christensen in their short time playing against each other on Wednesday. Christensen is still some way from the cool, confident player he was in October. And he is far from the physical attributes he must have to survive a long career in the Premier League.
Antonio Rudiger and Ethan Ampadu are the most solid centre-backs at this point in the summer. Rudiger is still not completely into the swing of Sarri’s system, but he is ahead of everybody else both in what he is doing with the role and his abilities to compensate for the areas he is still learning.
Ampadu, like Christensen, needs more physical development before he can be a Premier League regular. He should still stay with the first team this season as domestic cup and Europa League depth at centre-back and defensive midfielder. But he is not ready for the full-time role.
Which brings us back to Gary Cahill. The process of elimination works in his favour, but he justifies his place on the merits. He has the discipline, leadership and defensive acumen Luiz lacks. He has the physicality and mental resilience Christensen and Ampadu are still building. He has the Premier League experience Rudiger does not. And he, along with a few other senior players, has the pulse of the club and the locker room.
At different junctures of the game against Arsenal, the defence needed Cahill. Regardless of who the centre-backs or full-backs were, he would have brought something that each battery of defenders needed to be a complete unit.
Cahill may not make his return to the squad for the Community Shield, and may not be in the starting XI on opening day. But before long, he will be there. Anyone surprised when it happens has not been paying attention for the last six years.