Winners and losers from Chelsea’s 3-1 victory over Udinese

Winner: The Jorginho-N’Golo Kante pivot

It is amazing to watch N’Golo Kante play football when he has a pair of fresh and healthy legs. He looked in peak form on Friday, running around the pitch and wreaking havoc when Udinese had the ball. On top of his off-ball work, it was his on-ball play that really stood out, as evidenced by his goal to open the scoring. Seeing Kante carry the ball 50 yards and cap it off with a perfectly taken strike from the top of the box was absolutely euphoric. The whole game was a wonderful example of what Kante can do when healthy.

His midfield partner, Jorginho, also seemed up for it in Italy, finishing the game with an assist while doing his normal metronomic passing that is so necessary for a possession-based squad like Chelsea. Additionally, it seemed like he played with a little bit more urgency to get the ball forward, something that I have been critical of in the past. When the midfield two of Jorginho and Kante are humming, it proves to be one of the most lethal combinations in all of football, and they definitely had it going on Friday.

Loser: The Jorginho-N’Golo Kante pivot

Unfortunately, there still remain some serious question marks about the ceiling of that duo, and that was evidenced by Udinese’s only goal of the evening. Kante’s superpower is his ability to press and win the ball back all over the field, but he inevitably gets caught out at times, leaving Jorginho to cover acres of space in the midfield that he’s just not athletically able to cover. After Udinese broke the initial press, Jorginho was subsequently badly beaten, and the Udinese forwards were able to run at the Chelsea defense, ultimately leading to a goal that Edouard Mendy should have done much better on.

If you’ve watched Chelsea over the past few seasons, you’ll have recognized that move of opposing players running free in the space between the midfield and the defense. That is a recipe for disaster. It is also something that has yet to have been figured out. When Tuchel first arrived halfway through the 2020/2021 season with the 3-4-3, he utilized Antonio Rudiger as a bit of a stop gap for when Jorginho and Kante got beaten, which was one of the reasons why it was so difficult to score on the Blues. Without Rudiger, it will be up to Kalidou Koulibaly to fill that role. On Friday, it was clear that there will be a learning curve for the Chelsea pivot, and we might have to get used to watching goals like that be scored until the team can get into a rhythm.

What did you take away from the Blues’ match against Udinese? Let us know your thoughts in the comments or on Twitter!