Chelsea face MOL Vidi for the first time in club history, or at least for the first time under this name. The Blues should create a lot of memories for fans and young players, but ones MOL Vidi would rather forget.
Chelsea’s youth team won their European match 10-1 on Wednesday. That’s not too far off from some of these predictions for a youth-heavy senior team against MOL Vidi.
Barrett Rouen: Chelsea 3 – 0 MOL Vidi. Chelsea will play the yoof because it’s the right thing to do and win 3-0 and see that oh my god having players who are ingrained in the club and for whom winning actually matters in their bones as opposed to just being something they’d rather do is important. Ethan Ampadu will finally get to play a bloody match for the love of all that’s holy and all that isn’t as well.
Abhishek Pancholi: 5 – 0. Sarri will be true to his word and rest most of his best XI for this game. The double-barreled duo of Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Callum Hudson-Odoi will finally start a meaningful game together. Ross Barkley was with Maurizio Sarri at the pre-match press conference, so it would be hilariously cruel to leave him out.
This will be the easiest game Chelsea play this season, so anything less than five goals would be disappointing. A thrashing of this magnitude could turn out to be the trigger for another name change for MOL Vidi FC.
Scott Brant: 4 – 0. This should be a blowout, no resistance what so ever, easy peasy. It doesn’t matter who starts, youngsters or veterans, the result will remain the same. I am hoping Hudson-Odoi, Ethan Ampadu and Ross Barkley all start. Barkley to score and Willian with a hat trick. Not much to be said about a one-sided match.
Nate Hofmann: 5 – 0. In football, the uniqueness of a club’s name is often inversely proportionate to their actual ability level. Denmark’s Middlefart, Ghana’s Mysterious Dwarfs, and India’s Income Tax FC are all great examples.
MOL Vidi, the artist formerly known as Videoton (which itself sounds like a sketchier version of Blockbuster), very much falls in this category. I’ll admit I haven’t tuned in for many Nemzeti Bajnoksag I matches this season (not offered on my basic cable package), but I feel fairly comfortable predicting a Chelsea victory.
The real metric for success in this match will be the individual performances of Chelsea’s fringe players, who should all get a run out considering this is arguably the worst team Chelsea will face all season. Between a slew of young, hungry Blues eager to get on the scoresheet and the match being at home against the worst team in the group, we’ll hopefully see a ruthless and thorough dismantling of Vidi. Anything else would be a minor atrocity. And please, for the love of all that is holy, let Morata score at least once.
Kevin Peacock: 5 – 0. For the ‘Boys from Dave’ it’s the biggest game of their season, but for Maurizio Sarri it’s a chance to continue schooling his lesser senior pro’s in his methods ahead of the kids. Chelsea will have more than enough to overcome Vidi, and Alvaro Morata could finally get his season going in goal-scoring terms. Chelsea to win with the scorers being Morata (2), Ross Barkley, Pedro and Gary Cahill.
Hugo Amaya: 3 – 0. Sarri will finally let some players rest and allow some youth into the squad. Even then, it will be a straight-forward match for Chelsea as the Blues dominate the entire game.
This will also be the perfect chance for players like Morata and Hudson-Odoi to get on the score sheet. Two goals in the first half and one more late in the second half will seal the deal for Chelsea.