The final score and many underlying stats looked like a lot of Chelsea’s other games this season, but the Blues took another major step forward with their fluidity against Aston Villa.
Antonio Conte once described his Italy teams as a “chameleon” for how fluidly they could change tactics and formations. Chelsea showed hints of this in his first season, but even after the rest of the Premier League figure out his methods he still hewed quite closely to his 3-4-3 / 3-5-2. Maurizio Sarri, the ultimate “system” man, was rigidly formulaic in how he employed his 4-3-3 at Chelsea. Frank Lampard, in contrast to his two immediate predecessors, has rendered any such hyphenated numeric string utterly useless to describe anything more than momentary snapshots on the pitch.
Against Aston Villa, the only constants were the goalkeeper and the defenders. Cesar Azpilicueta and Reece James spent much of the game high up the pitch supporting the attack, but they were still within the regular bounds of what full-backs do. Kurt Zouma did not make any of his power dribbles up the centre of the pitch, and Kepa Arrizabalaga was neither tempted nor forced into doing anything that could make him be inanely classified as a “ball-playing goalkeeper.”
But as for the rest, 4-3-3 / 4-2-3-1 really were nothing but some numbers.
N’Golo Kante and Mateo Kovacic showed just how solid a highly mobile and dynamic midfield pairing can be. At times Mateo Kovacic was between the centrebacks to help play out from the back or cover defence in transition. N’Golo Kante had several plays as the widest player on the right – outside of Willian and Reece James. The two swirled around each other and the attacking midfielders / wingers throughout the game.
Kante, moving independently of Kovacic, followed the ball and the play in both directions. He won headers deep on the right, played off Pulisic and Mount on the left and centre and – even with Chelsea playing such a strong offensive lineup – continued to drive forward on the attack.
Christian Pulisic, Mason Mount and Willian simply went wherever the game needed them. Pulisic stayed the furthest forward of the three, but he would drop deeper to linkup with Cesar Azpilicueta on the left just as often as he would drive through the centre of the box.
Mount and Willian switched sides freely in the second half, as Mount opened space for Tammy Abraham and Christian Pulisic across the box. Chelsea would sometimes have all four forwards on one side of the pitch (usually the left), with N’Golo Kante or Reece James providing the outlet on the right.
Willian covered a near Kante-esque amount of space. His defensive tracking enabled Reece James to play more forward, similar to how the Kante – Kovacic pair allowed Cesar Azpilicueta to move forward without fear of the centrebacks being exposed to a counterattack. Willian was as quick and aggressive on defence as he was patient and coy on offence, once again helping Chelsea maintain possession and forcing Aston Villa to stand off him while the Blues flooded Villa’s box.
Tammy Abraham was similarly mobile, once again drawing the contrast between him and his “competitors” within the squad. If dropping deep resulted in him bringing the ball up the wide areas of the pitch, he would do that comfortably, knowing he would have a winger and full-back support him on the outside while the rest covered his area in the centre of the box. This allowed him to take his time on the ball and precluded Aston Villa from overloading him in a vulnerable position.
At times, Chelsea did have the shape of a 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3, especially when organizing into their defence. On offence, if they did organize into that shape, it would be with different players in different places within the structure. More often than not, the players arranged themselves on the pitch and around Aston Villa however they needed to.
What it lacked in classification it made up for in aesthetics and, more importantly, potential.
Chelsea’s success the last three seasons were a combination of a short-lived advantage while their opponents were figuring them out followed by Eden Hazard’s ability to manufacture wins. Antonio Conte made it until January of his first season before having to rely on Hazard with contributions from players like Cesc Fabregas. Maurizio Sarri made it until about the second week in September.
Chelsea currently have some very talented players, but no one at the level of Hazard or Fabregas. Frank Lampard knows his team will always need to stay a step or two ahead of their opponents because they will not just be able to play around getting the ball to one player and letting the magic happen.
Staying ahead of the opponents means never being predictable and always evolving. Chelsea may not have had the greatest quality against Aston Villa, particularly in their chances or finishing (two goals from nine shots on target and 25 shots in total), but they never settled into an easily discernible – and therefore easily neutralized – routine. From that basis, everything else will come with time, training and, yes, a transfer or two.
As easy it is to forget, it’s still only matchweek 15 of the first season.