Two things to watch for in Chelsea at Zenit in the Champions League

1. A stronger defensive display

One of the first things that Tuchel worked on as soon as he joined Chelsea last season was the defence. While the Blues had talented centrebacks like Andreas Christensen, Thiago Silva and Antonio Rudiger, Frank Lampard was unable to utilize them properly in his back four. Instead, he elected to play Kurt Zouma, who was relatively mistake-prone, in an unforgiving system. When Tuchel came in, he changed the system to a three-man defense and played the likes of Silva, Rudiger and Cesar Azpilicueta instead. With these three solid defenders manning the back line, the wingbacks played with more freedom and the overall structure of the team was strengthened.

However, although the Blues were winning match after match and the attack was looking good, the main thing that helped Chelsea win all the matches was its impenetrable defence. The trio hardly ever made a wrong decision and the experience of Azpilicueta and Silva helped out a lot. The Champions League final was the ultimate defensive test for the Blues and they passed that flawlessly. The current season has also been heavily dependent on the performance of the defenders. Tuchel was criticised for not being attack-minded enough and that caused him to play his team with more intensity. However, the cracks in the defence have begun to crop up now.

Chelsea’s seemingly impenetrable defence was broken down three times by the Hammers and even Manchester United took advantage of a silly mistake. Going into the game against Zenit, it can be said that the Blues will need to tighten up their defence more than usual. The free-flowing football that Tuchel was trying out may be put on hold for a while in order to get the team back into running form. Tuchel is a known perfectionist and the last few games were far from perfect, so fans can expect a rock-solid defence from the men in blue and a probable clean sheet, as well.