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Chelsea: Three things to look for versus Crystal Palace

By Varun Dani

LONDON, ENGLAND - JULY 26: Christian Pulisic of Chelsea in action during the Premier League match between Chelsea FC and Wolverhampton Wanderers at Stamford Bridge on July 26, 2020 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Craig Mercer/MB Media/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - JULY 26: Christian Pulisic of Chelsea in action during the Premier League match between Chelsea FC and Wolverhampton Wanderers at Stamford Bridge on July 26, 2020 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Craig Mercer/MB Media/Getty Images) /
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LONDON, ENGLAND – SEPTEMBER 29: Fikayo Tomori of Chelsea during the Carabao Cup fourth round match between Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on September 29, 2020 in London, England. Football Stadiums around United Kingdom remain empty due to the Coronavirus Pandemic as Government social distancing laws prohibit fans inside venues resulting in fixtures being played behind closed doors. (Photo by Visionhaus)
LONDON, ENGLAND – SEPTEMBER 29: Fikayo Tomori of Chelsea during the Carabao Cup fourth round match between Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on September 29, 2020 in London, England. Football Stadiums around United Kingdom remain empty due to the Coronavirus Pandemic as Government social distancing laws prohibit fans inside venues resulting in fixtures being played behind closed doors. (Photo by Visionhaus) /

3. Last chance to experiment

Preseason might be the most underrated aspect of a football season. That first month of finding the right fitness and tactics quietly determines the direction a club is headed towards that year. Yet, the footballing community often passes it off as an afterthought. As the football calendar was massively revised due to the pandemic this year, these first few weeks of ‘official’ football can be rather classified as a ‘disguised preseason’. The last leg of which will be the London Derby against Palace on Saturday.

It is essentially the last opportunity for Lampard to tinker with his back four, midfield three and front three, as he hopefully fixates in on consistent tactics for the season. This crucially means finding his first-choice centerback pairing, deciding between a double pivot and a dual No. 8s system and learning the best positions of his new signings.

It is understandable for a fanbase to internally debate on which of Kurt Zouma-Fikayo Tomori, Zouma-Thiago Silva or Zouma-Andreas Christensen should be the starting pairing; each has its own merits. Similarly, fans can certainly create intriguing arguments for each of the Jorginho-Mateo Kovacic, N’Golo Kante-Kovacic, Kante-Jorginho or Kante-Mason Mount-Havertz midfield combinations. However, as the manager, Lampard cannot be as indecisive and constantly shake up his line-ups based on a few inconsistent results, as he has ever since he took over. It’s always a new formation, a new combination and/or a new paring which is supposed to solve problems bred by inconsistent squad selections in the first place.

Following the international break, Lampard will hopefully have most of his players fit and it will be his task to get them firing on all cylinders. The first step to doing that is to decide on an XI that consistently plays together for most of the season. Saturday represents the last chance for Lampard to seek any answers he requires to solidify his final starting XI for the season.

Next. Chelsea fans need to be patient with Callum Hudson-Odoi. dark

What are some things you’ll be looking for? Let us know in the comments or on Twitter!

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