WITH the bitterness of defeat fresh-tasting on the tongue of Premier League managerial debutant, Frank Lampard, it is clear that the new boss of Stamford Bridge has a lot of work to do. But, aside from the scoreline, what did we really learn?
NUMBER ONE: It was never going to be easy…
Slapped with a two window transfer ban and faced with the loss of talisman Eden Hazard, Chelsea were already needing to start the season with a new plan. In-came Frank Lampard, with a focus of building a team around the youth – a project in which all of Lampard’s predecessors were unwilling to forge. And with that, youngsters Mason Mount and Tammy Abraham were thrown straight into the lineup along with the inexperienced Kurt Zouma – who partnered academy graduate Andreas Christensen at the back.
The end result was something of a baptism of fire for Chelsea and Frank, who were on the wrong end of a 4-0 drubbing at Old Trafford. But Man United, at least, had an idea before of what they’d be in for this season, with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer having already been at the helm for 6 months. They’d also brought in strong defensive reinforcements in Harry Maguire and Aaron Wan Bissaka, which is at least an improvement on Phil Jones and Ashley Young at right back even if they had two legs between them. And with this, Man United already began with a mental edge.
NUMBER TWO: Defensive frailties punished Chelsea
Let’s start with the obvious. United won 4-0, but despite it appearing to the contrary, United did not spank the Blues as much as the scoreline suggests. The attacking trio of Rashford, Martial and Lingard pulled their pants down at times, but only because we gave them the license to do so. Nowadays teams are encouraged to play out from the back, but when you don’t have the confidence to do so, you shoot yourselves in the foot. Kurt Zouma flashed the ball across the penalty area within 10 minutes of play and Anthony Martial pounced. His tame shot was safe into the hands of Kepa Arizzabalaga but this was the first warning sign. Five minutes later Pedro’s careless pass gifted United a counter attack as Rashford charged at the blues’ defence. Zouma slips and dangles out a leg of which Rashford trips over. Stone wall penalty. No complaints. And Rashford is off the mark for the season.
For 60 minutes more or less United were kept at bay. But when Tammy Abraham failed to hold the ball up and was stabbed away by Harry Maguire, another counter begun and yet again, Chelsea were caught. Nobody stopped the cross from Andreas Pereira and there was Anthony Martial to volley home inside the penalty area, and from that point onward… Chelsea’s confidence dropped. Kepa never made another save and it took just 17 seconds of play before United’s third. Some quick football and a nice ball over the top from Paul Pogba saw Rashford through on goal again, and with captain ‘Dave’ (Azpilicueta) running in treacle, all the former had to do was slot past Kepa. Three-nil.
A free-kick into the box by Mason Mount – who largely had a positive game, aimed for Zouma who then collided in the air with Luke Shaw on United’s left side and Chelsea were exposed again with a lack of numbers there to cover as Pogba collected the ball; knocking it around an onrushing Dave as Chelsea were left for dead again. A swift exchange between french duo Pogba and Martial ensued and the former sprinted on and layed it off to an electric Daniel James, who had been substituted on for his debut. James hesitated once but got the shot away soon after – deflecting off the legs of Chelsea’s left back Emerson and nestling past the goalkeeper.
NUMBER 3: A lack of leadership
Branching off of the defensive frailties, Chelsea’s other issue was a lack of leadership. Dave is the captain, and has been brilliant over the years and usually, still is. He is now Mr. Chelsea and now the longest serving player left at the club. But does he have the commanding presence a natural leader possesses? Maybe not. But there is nobody else who can either.
A certain Coco the Clown was sold from Chelsea on deadline day and to a direct top 4 rival in Arsenal, Nonethless. He goes by the name of David Luiz and, despite his lapses of concentration – which have lead to all sort of catastrophes over the years, his presence was undeniable. On the pitch he commanded the back line even if sometimes he was at fault, and no doubt had one the biggest voices in the dressing room, as well as his capability to ping a wonderful long ball to the forward line. He dramatically asked to leave with Lampard supposedly having told him that he would no longer be a guaranteed starter, and out-the-door he went. His cult-hero status will now be questioned but what is clear is we lost a big character. Now somebody else will have to step up.
NUMBER 4: Poor decision making
In an attacking sense, Chelsea played some exciting stuff; controlling the game for most of the first half and especially the first 15 minutes. Some good exchanges between Mount, Pedro and Abraham led to a corner. From which after some scuffed attempted clearances spawned a chance for New No.9 Tammy Abraham. With the ball landing in front of him, he thundered a shot from outside the box which smashed against the post. Minutes later Azpilicueta fizzed a low cross into the danger zone with the target Abraham. The lanky forward watched as the ball rolled past him but, had he been on his toes, he could have been celebrating a first competitive goal for his boyhood club. After falling behind, Barkley had a shot saved by David De Gea – who was full of confidence again having decided to stay at United after various late season blunders, and Emerson struck the crossbar later on.
Aside from that some of the build play was slick and exciting to watch but in the final third, it just wasn’t coming off. Barkley thought he was Eden Hazard when he tried to flick on a pass and turn, but then he realised he was just Ross Barkley from Everton who has still to master successful dribbles of his own.
Number 5: Reasons to be encouraged
Even though the blues shipped 4 goals, we had more shots, shots on target, possession, made more passes and had more corners than our opposition. Games aren’t won on paper, and Frank is very aware of this but our biggest issues boiled down to our defensive mistakes, and poor decision making in the final third. Had Abraham and Emerson taken their chances early on we could have been looking at a very different outcome. But football is not a game of would’s, should’s and could’s and that was the difference between the Red Devils and the Blues today. They capitalised on Chelsea’s mistakes under were unforgivably clinical.
But if there’s anyone who can fix this, it’s Lampard. The club’s record goalscorer and the best goal-scoring midfielder the Premier League has seen. If he can light the fuse we need in attack, the rest will fix itself. Onwards and upwards.
#LampardIn
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