The one black mark on Chelsea’s victory over Crystal Palace was the Christian Benteke and the rockiness that came after. That spell aside, Chelsea was perfect. One would have thought the Blues were playing Everton given their history of 100% performances against the Toffees.
What really stands out about Chelsea’s display against Crystal Palace is that they did not need to be special to do it. Nothing extraordinary was required. It was one part culmination of things the squad had been doing, but so much more of it was getting all the right pieces together in form.
It all mainly started for Kai Havertz and company. Regardless of which side of the false nine versus real nine debate you fall on for Havertz, if he performs it doesn’t really matter what it’s called. He was simply everywhere as he dropped deep and roamed wide to create overloads and shift the opposition defense.
It’s not anything he hasn’t already done playing up top. The way he plays the role requires a bit of help on the back end from the other forwards. Christian Pulisic and Mason Mount stepped up. Anytime Havertz would vacate the center, Pulisic would be bursting to fill that space. It’s a role he did often last year but, since Timo Werner’s arrival, one he has not featured in often. Mount, meanwhile, is always the guy to fill in and cover ground. He may not go as deep or wide as Havertz, but having two players like that, plus one willing to get into the box, is exactly what Chelsea has been missing.
That shouldn’t be seen as a knock against the other forwards, particularly Timo Werner given that, on paper, he should be tailor made for the role Pulisic played. But Werner’s issue right now is he has played so much and more playing time isn’t giving him any more confidence. Havertz and Pulisic clicked so well because Pulisic played without fear of a miss on his shoulders. If Werner can take this breather and shake that burden, he can do the same.
It should also be noted just how excellent the players behind the forwards were as well. Post Porto the complaint was that the forwards got no service which is true to a degree (after all, Mount showed that it’s less about the service and more about what you do with the service you get). Jorginho and Mateo Kovacic were both very keen to get the ball back forward rather than merely side to side. Their main job is to recycle the ball but against Palace it looked as though their main job was to recycle it forward instead of the usual back or sideways. The back three performed a similar role, showing far more eagerness to get the ball forward and moving.
And so much of this couldn’t have happened without the wingbacks being constant outlets of escape for the buildup and service for the forwards. Ben Chilwell was fantastic in knowing when to come in and when to stay wide while Callum Hudson-Odoi is continuing to show how solid of a winger he can be, against conventional wisdom that inside forward is his destiny.
The best thing about the performance was that no one had to be amazing to produce it. The right group just had to come together and do what was expected of them. That means, at least with this group of players, this can be the standard going forward. And if this is the standard, few will be ready for the days where someone does something amazing.