Chelsea defeated Bournemouth while simultaneously looking comfortable against their opponents but still uncertain about the full implementation of Sarrismo.
Chelsea have begun the season by winning four out of four matches. That’s a good thing to note under any circumstances. It’s even better when you recognize that when Chelsea have won the first four matches of the season they have never finished outside the top two. And it’s even better still when you look at the table and realize Manchester City, Tottenham and Manchester United have all dropped points.
That all said, I don’t want to be the boring person here and suggest Chelsea would do well to keep their feet firmly on the ground. While the attack has started to look more potent recently, they have also reintroduced Eden Hazard. The attack was always going to take a big step forward once he returned. But his pure talent disguises a lot of the weaknesses in the side going forward.
A week after he was such a joy to watch, Mateo Kovacic looked mediocre to poor against Bournemouth. It was even more frustrating that his substitute Ruben Loftus-Cheek – who I pull for every second – showed some of his bad habits in the match as well.
Loftus-Cheek was wonderful on the ball but his off-ball play was at best awful. He must begin to use his time off the ball more proactively to create space for his teammates and tactically manipulate play around him. As it is now, it’s not good enough. In a week when he could have gained ground on Kovacic in the lineup Loftus-Cheek showed why there are doubts about him.
Obviously, a side in which a left-back not named Roberto Carlos is one of the best attackers probably is not firing on all cylinders. Marcos Alonso really never deserved a lot of the stick he was given early on. But he has proven himself to be a wonderful footballer and professional at Chelsea in the time since.
Kepa Arrizabalaga has had a happy start to his Chelsea career if only because it has been quiet enough for him to settle in. My nightmare scenario was that Chelsea would try to attack and welcome David Luiz back into the lineup, leaving the young King exposed awfully in his early matches in a way that would be hard for him to truly recover from mentally. He’s had fairly little to do, which has given him time to adjust to the speed, physicality and new teammates.
Annoyingly, Luiz was poor again. Yet Chelsea supporters are being subjected to this in a way that should perhaps be brought up in The Hague. Luiz should have been sent off for his foul in around the 17′. He was the last man back and didn’t even touch the ball. It’s frustrating that while I would love to manage a restaurant with the Brazilian star, there’s not one part of me as a former center half that can bear to watch this every week.
Thankfully N’Golo Kante saved him in the first half. For Luiz’s second half mistake, Nathan Ake too care of things himself by donating the ball to the second deck rather than score. A charitable chap, that Ake. Luiz’s passing is at times ethereal but not often enough to put up with this.
On the other hand, Antonio Rudiger is a defender after my own heart. I like that he plays with a chip on his shoulder. He could have given up a penalty for an unnecessary shove in the first half but a team needs an enforcer like this. A player for whom part of his ability to play the game is the silent intimidation of opposing attakers being worried about a stud to the Achilles or lower spine.
Rudiger is physical, quick and improving with every passing game. His 50th appearance for the club was a fine performance and his ability to find a fight in an empty room is well, frankly, hilarious.
Finally, and this will be the last part of this early focus on individuals, Kante returned. It has been a worrying part of this early adoption of Sarrismo that it appeared the tactical setup was minimizing the usefulness of Chelsea’s human Swiss army knife. Kante was wonderful all over the pitch. His link up play in attack and in saving Mr. Luiz was exactly what the world of football has come to expect from the perfect little Frenchman.
Chelsea are continuing to adapt to Maurizio Sarri’s methods and they are obviously improving at them. But many question marks remain. The central defensive pairing will not stand long and everyone seems to know that. Luiz has displayed exactly what is wrong with his style of play seemingly since the beginning of the season.
Sarri has also not involved the youth in the ways Chelsea fans will all have hoped. He needs to get Andreas Christensen, Ethan Ampadu, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Ruben Loftus-Cheek at least 30 appearances each this season. They won’t all be starts, but appearnces of more than 20-25 minutes is non-negotiable. Chelsea are no longer a rich enough club to be wasting the opportunity to fill gaps with youth.
All that remains, really, for Chelsea in their adoption of Sarrismo is to get out of second gear. They appear stuck in a sort of hill-climbing mode at the moment. For that change to happen and the club to start flying Alvaro Morata is going to need to start scoring goals. It’s great that his attitude has changed and he at least appears to be acting like a footballer this season as opposed to whatever BAFTA award-chasing performance he went for last year.
I believe the goals will flow though with some new proper British attitude in his game. He has the skills and body to be perfect. If Gonzalo Higuain could do it for Sarri, then Morata – who is every bit the striker the Argentine is – can as well.
When that happens the transformation will be complete and other teams will need to take note of this side. Luckily Chelsea still have some good fixtures to iron out their issues but it needs to happen before the winter. Otherwise Chelsea will suffer in the spring.