Chelsea showed against Newcastle and Ajax that they are back to being the team that always has a late win in them. Now they need to work on being the team that will never have wins – or clean sheets – taken away from them.
Chelsea have used their last seven games to prove their ability to win under a range of circumstances. The only thing they have not had to do in the win streak that started with trouncing Grimsby Town is come from behind to win. In fact, the Blues have not earned a single point from a trailing position all season.
Frank Lampard’s aggressive game management suggests the late single-goal wins were by necessity and not design. The Blues did not sit back and defend against Newcastle (that would have been quite an issue if they did) or Ajax. Chelsea were not aiming to smother the game across the pitch, pursuing goals only on counters and set pieces until an aggressive push at the end via attacking substitutes against tired opponents. They spent the entirety of both games pushing hard for goals, defending as necessary and then protecting their lead for the 17 or four remaining minutes.
They spent the entirety of the game at Burnley pushing hard for goals, as well. But at Turf Moor, that aggression cost them a clean sheet and took the luster off Christian Pulisic’s night.
Frank Lampard made his first sub five minutes after Willian made it 4-0, and made his remaining two less than 10 minutes after that. All three substitutions were like-for-like, and the game plan stayed the same. Mason Mount still led an aggressive press. Christian Pulisic, Willian and Callum Hudson-Odoi all worked the outside before driving inside to create chances. Jorginho and the centrebacks pushed up high on the play to press and maintain pressure, and Mateo Kovacic was the everywhere man, covering defensive gaps and giving Chelsea their best ball advancement through the middle.
The 4-0 scoreline said more about the night Christian Pulisic was having than either Chelsea or Burnley. Christian Pulisic made Burnley pay for two of their very few mistakes in the first half. The Blues weather a worthy charge by Burnley to start the second before the quality gap between Chelsea’s players and their hosts put two more goals on the board.
The Blues had a wide lead in possession, shots and all the other game management statistics, but they never really had control of the game. Even at two, three and four goals up, this was still an open game of football. Anyone turning on the game without knowing the score would not have expected one team to be leading by such a wide margin based on what they would have seen.
At 4-0 up, Lampard spurned the chance to shut down the game as someone like Jose Mourinho would have done.
Lampard did not have too many defensive options off the bench to support parking the bus: Marc Guehi and Reece James were the only defenders, and there were no midfielders. However, he could have brought James on for a winger – as he did in stoppage time against Ajax – to bring Cesar Azpilicueta into the back-line for a 5-4-1. Alternatively he could have sent in Marc Guehi for a midfielder or winger to screen the centrebacks, if not join the back-line outright.
By keeping the same formation and intent, Chelsea remained open enough through midfield and defence to allow Burnley more chances on goal.
Yes, Burnley’s goals were a wonder strike and a deflection, but those shooting lanes should not have been open. Had the Blues adopted a more defensive posture – via their substitutions or their formation – neither Jay Rodriguez nor Dwight McNeil would have had that much space to shoot into such clear shooting lanes.
If the Blues wanted to maintain their possession, they could have killed the game along the touchline in the final third and in the corners, as Christian Pulisic showed he was mightily capable of in the previous games.
As Mourinho showed with his Chelsea sides, you can control and smother an opponent anywhere on the pitch. You can park a bus with nine men in your defensive third. You can have your wingers alternately amble and surge in possession before sending someone strong and deft like Didier Drogba to protect the ball near the corner flag. Mourinho could end a game anywhere on the pitch.
"The team knew when to be more defensive, when to control the game by having more possession, when were the crucial moments to kill opponents in transition. Every time we went in front we had that feeling of: the game is in the pocket. – Jose Mourinho, The Coaches’ Voice"
A day after Leicester City hung four on Southampton, goals were on everybody’s mind. No one will much mind their team going for an even bigger win, until their gratuitous pursuit makes it a smaller win. The Blues are not yet at the point where they can feel like clean sheets are as much as a certainty as wins, regardless of the scoreline, and that should be the next stage. This game was never in doubt, but it could and should have ended better.
Chelsea have shown that they know how to get themselves in front. Late, early, from possession, from transition, through a starter or off the bench. When the go-ahead goal came late, they knew they had no margin for error and they played like it.
Their next step forward will be viewing the clean sheet as the second win of a night. Up 4-0 at Burnley, they should have the same sense of no margin of error as being up 1-0 in Amsterdam.