Tactics and Transfers: Football returns and so does the same Chelsea

Chelsea looked so similar to the side we saw before the Coronavirus break that one could be forgiven for thinking that it hadn’t happened.

Football returned this week in the form that we will be forced to see out the rest of the season. It has been full of injuries, mistakes and a lot of the things that we tend to associate with preseason football. That said one thing was very predictable. The play of David Luiz.

We will get to Chelsea Aston Villa in a moment but commenting on the former Chelsea player’s defensive display for Arsenal and how sadly despite his absence the Blues defense is still an embarrassment to the club and its heritage is important.

Center back is a royal position. It is one that takes a certain amount of pride to play and at clubs like Chelsea, it means something to be a central defender. Ultimately a good center back should be a Rolls-Royce of a man: powerful, stately, luxurious, and yet intelligent and commanding. Not a decent looking Fiat that sometimes hits a corner correctly but is more often the reason you are late to meet Mrs. Perfect. David Luiz is the latter. His display for Arsenal against Manchester City showed exactly why he did not deserve to wear the Blue shirt. The sad thing, however, is that Chelsea’s current reserve of central defenders do not appear much better.

The Blues won on Sunday and that is a good thing. That said, Andreas Christensen failed to impress and continues to suggest that he may simply be too lightweight and glass jawed to play in England for the next 10 years. He continues to make a strong case for being included in a player-cash deal this summer.

Antonio Rudiger is more frustrating partially because so much more is expected from him. For a player as vocally commanding, strong looking, and athletic as he is, exactly how he manages to be so bad in the air and lose as many physical challenges as he does while constantly being out of position is peculiar. For someone who looks and sounds the business as much as he does, it is astonishing how little he means it. Both he and Christensen were more successful on Sunday because of Aston Villa’s failings than their own accomplishments on the pitch.

They hung Kepa Arrizabalaga out to dry yet again by failing to simply make a clearance in the first half. Time and time again Aston Villa simply missed chances in the air rather than Chelsea’s center backs clearing them. On several instances they showed such truly terrible judgment you would have thought they were teens on holiday in Magaluf.

The only Chelsea defender who has demonstrated himself well this season is Kurt Zouma and it would be shocking if, following this match, he was not reinstated as the only convincing central defender in the side.

That said the rest of the Chelsea side looked rusty but hopeful in their first match since the restart and as they had at the beginning of the season failed out the defense for their failings.

N’Golo Kante was marvelous in the middle of the pitch and covered his usual absurd amount of distance while breaking up play all over. Playing him in the center also gave Chelsea the opportunity to play Mason Mount and Mateo Kovacic at the same time and they were both sublime. Mount continues to show exactly what a positive young talent he is and Kovacic may quietly be the most complete central midfielder in the league.

Ruben Loftus-Cheek was less rusty than he should have been given that he has not kicked a ball competitively in over a year and was played further forward than one would expect.

The man though who changed the game was Christian Pulisic. He immediately injected flair, creativity, and initiative that the side lacked before his introduction. He continued to show that the only thing that really limits him is his fragility. He, like Loftus-Cheek, suffers more from an injury glass ceiling than any of the sorts the media types seem to imply.

The rest of the side were non spectacular and yet got the job done and that is exactly what the Blues really need. This is going to be a spectacularly weird end of the season and pretending that it is going to be anything other than that would be to ignore the obvious. If Chelsea can find a way to endure and dig out results like this for this short period of the season they will be in a good place.

For several years, the issue at Chelsea has not been talent, it has been that character that defined the Blues for all those years before Roman Abramovich’s revolution and after that gave it the spirit to make it spectacular. They became a copacetic and corporately boring side who performed in exactly that manner as well.

It seems that sad and tragic period may soon be ending and that is one of the best things about this new Chelsea side. As new glamorous signings are lined up and Chelsea seems to be chasing the top of the table again, the most important thing is that they are rediscovering that very quality that makes them Chelsea and that was never buyable in the first place.

This was a solid, professional, and spirited performance from Chelsea who made the most of the match despite many things not going their way.