Trailing 2-1 in this afternoon's encounter against Reading, Chelsea manager Roberto di Matteo decided to take off John Obi Mikel in favor of the notoriously inconsistant Daniel Sturridge on the 68' minute mark. Upon doing so, Chelsea's attacking six appeared as such; Frank Lampard deployed behind Juan Mata and Oscar, with Fernando Torres flanked by Edin Hazard and the aforementioned Sturridge up front. In few words, a scary offensive force.
This new-look Chelsea is now top of the Premier League table, and is of particular interest to me granted how brilliant they look going forward, and how inescapably vulnerable they look at the back. Today's fixture against Reading may prove a microcosm of Chelsea's season to come. Looking lively from the off, Chelsea comfortably dealt with Reading's occasional offensive forays with ease, and both Hazard and Mata looked likely to unlock the Royals' defense. This proved to be the case on 18' minutes, when Hazard jinked his way into the penalty area before fainting a cross and drawing a stone-wall penalty, duly dispatched by the otherwise quiet Frank Lampard...
Following this, however, I played witness to the Mr. Hyde-side of Chelsea's current squad. For the last 20 minutes of the first half, Reading's pacy wingers Garath Mcleary and Jobi Mcanuff proved altogether too nimble for all four of Chelsea's defender; on separate occasions, Ivanovic, Terry, Cahill and Cole were beaten badly for pace, allowing Mcleary and Mcanuff glorious opportunities for devastating crosses. These 20 minutes of dominance proved fruitful for Reading, as Pavel Pogrebnyak nodded home the equalizer (from a Mcleary cross) before Danny Guthrie's low freekick trickled in off the hands of a despairing Petr Cech, a set piece which came from a Mcleary dribble being illegaly halted by a badly beaten Terry.
Prior to this Reading renaissance, I was wholly entertaining the idea of having this blog be solely focused on praising a new, balanced, attack-minded Chelsea. However, come halftime, I was now thinking this post should instead be focused on a brilliant Reading side that appeared wholly undaunted by Chelsea's numerous superstars.
Instead, though, I was treated to a second half where Chelsea's Di Matteo had the confidence (and the cojones) to go full bore, and load his side with enough attacking talent to unravel any opposition defense. Chelsea had look particularly narrow during the first 65' of the match, but the introduction of Sturridge seemed to solve this issue; it wasn't necessarily that the Englishman himself was hugging the touchline, but Ivanovic took the initiative to cover the right flank whenever Sturridge drifted middle. Having sorted out a manner in which to spread the field, Chelsea went on to score three rather decent goals. The first came from a rare foray by Cahill towards the penalty area, where his 30 yard knuckler fortunately found the back of the net after first finding the hands of a hapless Adam Federici. Chelsea then took the lead after a brilliant move featuring deft one-touches from both Hazard and Oscar, before Cole's cross was tapped in by (an albeit offside) Fernando Torres. The match was put away in the 90', following a counter led by Hazard after Reading's goalie had been caught up field after a desperate attempt to capitalize on the late corner. Ivanovic tapped home on a keeper-less net.
What intrigues me so much about Chelsea at the moment is that they now have three incredible options to play behind a resurgent Fernando Torres, all of which are technically phenomenal; Mata, Hazard, and Oscar, who are then backed by either Frank Lampard or Ramirez to allow them the freedom to rome. Such a midfield is incomparable to other Premier League teams, even Manchester City, who arguably only have two such players in David Silva and Samir Nasri.
On the other hand, Chelsea are also a side which might be ruthlessly exposed as slow at the back by countless teams; if Reading were able to so cleanly dissect the Blues' back line, who is to say that at least 10 other Premier League sides won't do the same? So, then, it would seem that Chelsea might be the neutral's side to watch this year; electric going forward, but plodding and error-prone at the back.
At any rate, they have my attention and my respect. Their first two matches have been must-see television.
yea ivanovic was way too slow to keep up with the reading wingers, good article bruh
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