When we played Chelsea
the last time around, Frank Lampard was still a bright young thing on the
managerial scene and was going to return Chelsea to their former glories. How did that one work out for you then boys?
To be fair, I was absolutely delighted when Saints got a point at Chelsea
earlier on in the season courtesy of a last-minute goal by Jannik Vestergaard
and that seemed to be the signal to us that we could go anywhere and get a
result. How we wish for those times to return again.
Chelsea have changed of course with Lampard being sacked and
been replaced by Thomas Tuchel, who had previously just been sacked by PSG in
France, who have now been taken over by ex-Saints manager Mauricio Pochettino,
who took on ex-Saints manager Ronald Koeman and Barcelona in the Champions
League this week. As you all know, Mauricio came out on top. When the possibility of Lampard being sacked
was first mentioned, there was almost this narrative of “surely they couldn’t sack
Chelsea legend Frank Lampard”. That
attitude was almost assuming that Chelsea in some small way have any class. To be fair, they are ruthless – if you are
not achieving your targets in any way possible then you are out – regardless of
who you are.
Tuchel has arrived at Chelsea and has done very well, albeit with a kind
opening fixture list, in the main through having a system and picking the best
players for it, rather than trying to cram everybody in who had just been
signed. Tuchel seems to recognise that they have signed players that are either
not suitable for the English game or are not as good as they were hoped to be.
Regardless, there are still some surprising names on the list of players have
and have not been involved much under the new manager. The likes of Marcos Alonso and Callum Hudson-Odoi
have suddenly become more involved and if Fat Frank was still in charge, then you
wouldn’t see much of those two. Tuchel has even got Timo Werner scoring a goal, the
only surprise with that is that he didn’t wait until he played us in order to
do it.
So, it’s another bloody hard game against one of the
traditional big six. If we break our run of six straight league defeats today,
then it is certainly going to be hard work and it’s certainly not going to be
achieved if we respond to any adversity by chucking the towel in. It’s not adversity
like conceding a goal that seems to affect us, it’s when things happen that
seem unfair, like getting a shit decision off the referee. The boys have just
got to learn to get on with it and you cannot, at any level of football, afford
to let your head go down. Ralph is always talking about it and everyone
connected with Southampton knows, that Saints only get to win games of football
in the Premier League if everybody is on it for the entire duration of the game.
There are more problems before we start of course with KWP
being injured again so it will be interesting to see what the right back
tombola throws up for this particular game. My money is on Jack Stephens
training at right back a week and he will hopefully be better prepared if he
gets the nod, than he was at Newcastle a couple of weeks ago when he looked
about as comfortable as a fish riding a bicycle.
Team news and either we are playing 3 at the back with Djenepo at right wing
back or it’s a flat 4 with Bednarek at right back. Either way it’s worrying. Salisu is in from the start and fuck, Stuart
Armstrong is missing. That’s not good. Another sigh as I notice that Redmond is
preferred to Adams again so it clearly wasn’t just a tactical thing for Wolves. Chelsea have left Giroud out and picked
Abraham – this makes me happy. Werner
will no doubt remember that he’s a striker today.
As the game starts it’s clear we have gone with a back 3 and
instead of flying into he game like we usually do, we seem to be on the back
foot as Chelsea get hold of the ball.
The first action of any note sees Skate Mount free Reece James on our
left and his cross to the back stick is met on the volley by Marcos Alonso and
he volleys back across the goal and wide.
The worrying thing though was how much space he had with everyone
looking at each other.
It gets all cagey after that with not a lot happening. We are defending ok and not letting them get
anywhere near our goal but we are struggling to get out of our half. Chelsea are pressing well and we lose the
ball every time we try with JWP, Romeu, Minamino and Redmond all guilty. Despite having all the ball, Chelsea are doing
sweet fuck all with it and Tuchel is going nuts in the technical area. In response, Rudiger tries a shot from 40
yards with the whole Chelsea team bar the keeper in front of him. I bet Thomas was delighted.
Any headway Chelsea are making is down our right and we have definitely gone to
a flat back 4 now though it only seems to be on the right hand side of the
pitch or maybe, no one could make themselves heard or understood by
Minamino. Anyway, half hour approaches
and a stat comes on the TV to say that we’ve had zero touches in their penalty
area and if they did a stat for touches in Chelsea’s half, we’d have about
two.
Sometimes it doesn’t matter though as football breaks out, Redmond swaps passes
with Romeu and finds time to play a ball through a gap as wide as the M3 and
Minamino is clean through, a body feint and Azpilicueta and Mendy are left on
their arses and Takumi casually flicks it into the net with the outside of his
right boot. It’s amazing in so many respects,
mainly that Redmond and Minamino, two players who haven’t kicked the ball in
the right direction all game between them, have combined to score a brilliant
goal and give us a 1-0 lead from our first attack. Bizarre
The expected Chelsea onslaught doesn’t really happen as we dig in well. Romeu knocks Werner off balance and the
German then clatters into Djenepo, studs on shin. It’s not a red card because he’s been knocked
off balance but it’s a bit questionable to say the least. Nothing from the officials though except a Chelsea
free kick. Over it comes from Alonso and
Zouma looks offside as he tries to beat the high line and heads it goalward and
McCarthy makes a decent save at the post to shovel it away. The replay then shows that he was clearly
offside so if it had gone in then it would have, I assume been disallowed…. But
Chelsea get a corner anyway. Fuck knows
what’s going on these days.
Djenepo is in the wars again as we approach half time and this time he slides
in, wins the ball off Kante who leaves his foot in and smashes his studs into
Moussa’s shin. There’s a break whilst he
gets treated and I’m expected a nod from VAR to tell the ref that that was a
shit tackle and he needs to have a look at it but again, nothing.
Upon restarting there’s a great moment as Abraham, all seven foot of him, runs into Salisu and crumples like he’s been hit by a train. I’m watching on NBC and it’s basically Chelsea Fan TV with Andy Townshend. “Is it a penalty?” says Andy – fuck off Andy!
Tuchel has seen enough of Tammy so he’s off at half time to be replaced by Callum Hudson-Odoi which will certainly make them a bit livelier up top. Again, I’m please that Giroud is still on the bench. Chelsea have upped it at the start of the second half and Werner takes on Vestergaard who shepherds him towards the goal line and Werner tries a really shit effort into the side netting.
It’s a bit like the Wolves league game last week in that Chelsea haven’t looked like scoring but then, like Wolves, they get a penalty. Unlike Wolves, this is nailed on as they take a quick corner on our left, Hudson-Odoi finds Mount in the penalty area and Danny Ings carts him up in the air with a “fucking have that you Skate Bastard”. Sadly, I’ve made the second bit up but not the first and it’s a clear penalty. The VAR transcript was quite short...
"Hi Stu, any doubt that that was a penalty"
"Abso-fucking-lutely none"
Mount to take it and of course he’s gonna score… and McCarthy goes the
wrong way for the 53rd penalty in a row. 1-1. Shit. Andy Townshend tugs himself off.
What’s our response? It’s decent and we
have a few minutes in Chelsea’s half putting them under pressure – Kovacic gets
a bit casual and needlessly passes the ball out for a corner. JWP’s kick ends up over the left side with
Redmond and he crosses back in and it flicks off of someone and Vestergaard
improvises a stooped cushion header up and over everyone and it pings off the
bar, with Ings speculatively volleying the rebound wide.
Tuchel then shows how tough he is by making a couple of subs and taking off
Hudson-Odoi who he only sent on at half time – Ziyech is on in his place. Jorginho is also on for Kovacic and Andy
Townshend is in full Chelsea wanking frenzy about whether Hudson-Odoi is limping
and it takes a good couple of minutes before anyone points out that Nathan
Tella has come on for Minamino.
Into the last ten and we’re settling for a draw here. More energy is introduced with Adams and N’Lundulu
coming on for Ings and Redmond but our main problem is Mason Mount. He’s Chelsea’s best player by a mile and he
weaves between Djenepo and Bednarek before chipping to the back post and James volleys
wastefully over the bar. Thank fuck for
that.
A point, a point, my kingdom for a point. Yes, we will take
that, thank you very much. Not only have we avoided our usual Chelsea home
defeat, we have stopped the losing run at six and have reached the 30 point
barrier so happy days. It wasn’t pretty but it was effective and we have to be
happy with that.
Defensively today, we were pretty much faultless, restricting
Chelsea to just the one real on-target shot which was a penalty of course,
given away with the classic forwards tackle by Danny Ings. Fair play to him for
even being back there to make the challenge but it was a silly one.
I think that today conclusively proved that we are not as bad
as the bedwetters would have you believe. There are still problems, oh my word
there are still problems… but today we showed a willingness to dig in and tough
it out which is not been there in recent weeks and I think we answered any questions about attitude that
were beginning to surface.
Just for his willingness to do a side of the game which
doesn’t come naturally for him, Moussa Djenepo was excellent today. Not only
did he put tackles in and show a level of defensive discipline, he also got
clattered two or three times and challenges that would’ve normally left him
hobbling off, but today he showed on determination to stay on the pitch and
complete the 95 minutes. He certainly wasn’t
the man made of biscuits today. Not only did he do his defensive work, he also
was the only one in the starting line-up who was willing to take a player on
and at least look like he might beat a man.
Tactically we switched things around today if only for a
little bit, starting with three at the back and then swapping to a flat back four.
When we played with a four, Jan Bednarek look a distinctly uncomfortable right
back as you’d expect and occasionally got marooned far too far forward and but
the defending of Vestergaard and Salisu who made up for this. That’s how a team
is supposed to work by the way. There’s
an interesting problem coming Ralph’s way at some point and it’s a good
one. If we play a flat back four and KWP is available, who
partners Vestergaard? Bednarek has done nothing
wrong and is more experienced but Salisu is quicker and naturally left
footed. In top level sport, you pick
whatever you think is best for any particular game.
JWP and Romeu seemed to spend the whole game concentrating on the defensive
side and that’s fine today but they do need to get more progressive when we
have the ball in future games. In the
first half in particular we were struggling to get out of our half before we
lost it, in the face of Chelsea playing us at our own game and pressing us.
Further forward we were generally poor with all three of Redmond, Minimino and
Ings struggling to hold the ball at all or complete any sort of pass to a
player in a red shirt, especially in the Chelsea half. The first two, in
particular, were absolutely dreadful in the first half but then out of nowhere,
combined to score a superb goal. Okay, the Chelsea defence obligingly parted
but it was a well weighted through ball by Redmond and a wonderfully composed
finish by Minamino. Sitting a
defender and the goalkeeper on their arses and calmly stroking it home with the
outside of your boot is quality.
Minamino has added a goal threat and we needed that but it comes at the
expense of work against the ball and also at the expense of keeping the ball.
If you’re a fan of Chelsea and objective then you couldn’t of
been anything but disappointed with how they played. For all the players that
they’ve spent millions in signing, their best player by a mile is Mason Mount
and he was the only one who really caused us any problems. He was brought down
for the penalty, he scored the penalty, he created every worthwhile opening and
was the only one doing anything remotely threatening around the penalty area.
Thomas Tuchel came across as a bit of a bell end during the game, repeatedly throwing
tantrums on the sideline but it’s not his fault, it’s the fault whoever signed
off on the recruitment of players like Werner and Ziyech.
Also, I go on about this every time we play Chelsea but since Yaya Toure retired, Ngolo Kante has taken over his ‘Cloak of Invisibilty’. Seems to foul constantly in every game I see him play but rarely gets booked for all the ‘little’ fouls. Referee’s also miss his ‘big’ fouls as well, like the one today when he went studs up on Djenepo. VAR was Stuart Atwell so no surprised it was missed there and today’s ref Anthony Taylor missed it as well. Guaranteed that if that’s us, it’s a red card but for Kante, not even a yellow.
Having had a couple of bad days recently, today was a good
day for Ralph. We weren’t quite so hell for leather at the start and
concentrated on defending properly, which helped us see out the end of the game
more comfortably. Also of course, having
six days to prepare was key. Did we see
some tactical flexibility as well? We
have played 4-2-2-2 ever since the big reset post-Leicester and in order to
evolve as a team, we do need to learn how to tweak it occasionally. The only slight criticism is that Nathan Tella
should possibly have come on earlier. He is actually willing to take players on
and he will stick a shoulder in to put a defender off if needs be. Too often today, our forward players just let
defenders have a free ride, shielding the ball off for a goal kick etc.
So, the rot is stopped and it would be rather splendid if we could take that
and get our first win since the Liverpool game, on Tuesday against Leeds. They play in a similar high energy style to
us and have been hitting the buffers recently and looking tired. Should be a good game on Tuesday.
Today was a good day, up the fucking Saints.
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