Chelsea host Aston Villa on Wednesday night, so what better way to prepare for the game than analysing Chelsea’s play and looking at their strengths and weaknesses.
Overall:
In general Chelsea were very creative against Hull, especially in the first half. Their midfield is perfectly balanced and often the forward will help build up play rather than hang about in the opposition box. Chelsea will most likely play a 4-2-3-1, a formation commonly used under Rafa Benitiez. In midfield almost every player is instrumental in creating opportunities. Hazard will do well out wide and can get pass a player or two with skill, the same can be said about Oscar who can easily find space for himself and his team mates. In front of the defence Chelsea have the experienced Lampard who offers leadership and knows where the goal is. He plays next to Ramires who can be a threat up front and can also supports the defence well.
Chelsea’s defence is completely unchanged for more than a season, Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry and Cole are all very good. Terry is the leader of the defence, he can have his poor odd game but otherwise he’s usually on it. He is a block at the back, and he’ll be the one marking Benteke. Cahill hasn’t played his best football at Chelsea, but if he isn’t playing well, Luiz can be deployed and we know he is good. Their quality defence makes sure that Cech doesn’t have too much do, and often, he doesn’t, but he is prone to the odd mistake as well.
But what makes Chelsea particularly strong is the squad depth, their bench against Hull City was pure quality, Mata was even on it. If things don’t go well for Chelsea in the first half, Mourinho can easily change his team. On top of that, Mourinho is yet to lose at Stamford Bridge.
Weaknesses:
Chelsea were magnificent against Hull Tigers in the first half, in the second their performance lowered and they were defending more than attacking. Mourinho blamed that on players lack of physical and mental fitness, can Aston Villa exploit that? Also, you can frustrate Chelsea, you’ve got to have a well organised defence and a midfield that can work well with the defence. Playing counter-attack is probably the way to go. Their defence doesn’t have that much pace, apart from Luiz of course.
Top 3 Players to Watch:
Hazard, LW: Almost every top team was chasing for his signature back in 2012, Chelsea got their man and he’s getting better in every game. He terrorised the Tigers defence with his pace and skill. He can pick out his team-mates or score a goal himself. If Villa want to beat Chelsea, they’ll have to stop Hazard on the wing.
Mata, CAM: He didn’t play against Hull, that mean’s he’ll probably play against us. Mata has been instrumental at Chelsea ever since he was signed from Valencia. Mata is a very creative player and if any player were to create a goal, it would be him.
Luiz, CB: Luiz was one of the best defenders in the Confederation cup. Luiz is very fast, strong and good on the ball. He’s even scored a few crackers during his time at Chelsea, no wonder the likes of Barcelona and Bayern Munich were interested in him. Luiz also didn’t feature against the Tigers, and it’s still unknown whether or not he’
Comments
115 responses to “Opposition Watch: Chelsea”
the only positive thing about this BWS is that I haven’t found any other sources saying the same thing, hopefully its nothing.
as for the bent thing I don’t really think he’s said too much out of order, the papers have headlined it as ‘bent hits out at villa’ and so on but it aint much to get upset about.
Darren Bent quotes:
“It was really difficult at Villa because we weren’t allowed to play in any matches, a few of us were kind of alienated to train with the kids. It has been difficult,” he said. “There were times when I was thinking‚ ‘Do I really deserve this?’ It’s all well and good not being part of the squad but to be treated like we have is bad.
“It was horrible. It wasn’t so much the injuries, although they certainly didn’t help, it was just the uncertainty. There were times I was in the squad and times I wasn’t and there was just no explanation why.
“I understand that not every player can be every manager’s cup of tea but to be alienated like that, to be kicked out of the first-team dressing room, when I’ve played a long time, when I’m an international, just felt a bit disappointing.”
He said he was excited at the new opportunity. “I know Martin Jol. I’ve worked with him before, he signed me at Tottenham and I respect him hugely. Fulham are a strong, solid team and a good, solid club who have got some fantastic players.
“I’m not just hungry to play football again. I’m absolutely starving,” he said. “I’m ready to get going. Hopefully for the next game I’ll get a piece of the action. I’ve missed on a couple of major competitions with England but I just hope this is my year. I need to get back to playing regularly, scoring goals for Fulham and that’s my priority. That’s what I do best.”
not too out of order imo.
NM… It is well out of order IMO. At the end of the day it IS his decision whether to pull his weight or not. FFS, he is an adult and should therefore be capable of making rational decisions. The bloke takes the piss, gets alienated (unsurprisingly) and then has the audacity to shout his mouth off in the press… If thats not out of order, then I dont know what is!
Well I wouldn’t say he’s shouting his mouth off he’s said ‘alienated, treated badly, disappointed’ which is I’m sure how he feels justified or not and I aggree if he worked harder maybe he’d have got in, its nothing to get so pissed about, sure Lambert won’t loose any sleep over it.
I wanted to pick up on a topic that gets mentioned in these posts regarding the treatment of Villa by the media. I watched MNF last night on Sky sports and before the game they did a small recap of the weekends football. Well, when I say the weekends football, it was actually more the games involving Man Utd, Arsenal and Chelsea. Yeah go figure. So they start discussing the Arsenal game. Note, it was not the Arsenal v Aston Villa game, but the Arsenal game. It was all about how bad Arsenal played, how ineffective they were, where their problems lay and how they could improve. In the entirety of this games discussion I think Villa were referred to twice, and even this was only done to demonstrate the issues with Arsenal.
There was no overall credit given to Villa, no mention of how well we battled, how we rode the storm and kept going to the dying moments. Nothing.
So after a fairly one sided game between Man City v Newcastle the pundits go to the league table. Now I know that after one solitary game the table means naff all, but anyway…They go to the bottom and show Newcastle in 20th position. Fair enough, as that’s the end result after a 4-0 defeat. Then they say; ‘And Arsenal have now moved up to 16th place’. What? This is Citeh v Magpies, what has Arsenal got to do with it? Why not mention any other movement at the bottom of the table?
Then they go to the top of the table and announce Man Utd, Man City and Chelsea at the top. They then say that Aston Villa is disrupting the usual flow of the top four. Not credit to Villa for beating arsenal and being 3rd through effort. No! we are “Disrupting” the table. But don’t worry they said, because next MNF game is Man Utd v Chelsea and so normality will be resumed. Even now I have to pinch myself to make sure none of this is made up.
I seemed to recall that there are 20 teams in the premier league, but listening to the media you could be convinced that there was only 5. GGrrrrrrr!!!!!
UTV Brothers!
Well said deferenz it’s an absolute disgrace the way the media brown nose around the sky four. It’s been happening for years which is why I no longer subscribe to sky sports anymore as I was sick of watching a villa game and they still went on about utd even though they wernt playing. I would love us to win the league to piss the, off but that would never happen if we were in a challenging position sky would put our games on on more inconvenient time, the media would write about us to unsettle us and then big ref decisions would suddenly go against us. Remember 92 when ref kept playing till utd scored v Sheffield wed that totally fucked us up psychologically and we went downhill in last few games. Fixed IMO
So he’s said because he’s an international he didn’t deserve to be alienated….maybe if he pulled his dick out of places it shouldn’t be, kept his head down and worked hard like every other first team player he wouldn’t of been “alienated”. Lambert has standards, Bent doesn’t meet them. If he was that “starving” to return to the pitch and play football would he not of taken a pay cut and made the move permenant or gone somewhere else instead of on loan? He’s a money grabbing lazy c–t (sorry) who doesn’t deserve to wear the Villa shirt. Good riddance to him.
That’s a bit harsh b6 Carew was in papers for lap dancing and didn’t play well in the end but don’t remember u having a go at him. I’m actually a fan of bent he does what it says on the tin. We signed him with our eyes open we knew what we were getting and we desperately needed goals at that time and he didn’t let us down on that front. We were all grateful when he arrived and fwiw I think he’s been treated harshly by lambert especially when he’s stuck with vlaar and bennet for so long.
Oohah if we lose 4-0 tomorrow will that mean are we twice as good as last year?
BWS… no, it probably means Clark and Vlaar are playing 🙂
Amazing.. an article about Chelsea, the debate moves on to Darren Bent, and you still manage to post an anti Vlaar message. Does your PC have a default setting to include the words Vlaar and shit in everything you say?
For the record where do all the stories about Bent being lazy come from? Never heard a complaint from the club, the manager or any informed source. Bent was good for Villa, Benteke is better, Lambert only wants to play one main striker. Simple
RW… lol, you have never seen Bent play then? Just lazy, would be paying him a real compliment!
R W love it mate, definitely has passionate love for Vlaar does our Oohah, one day he will forget to mention his name. Wait for it ? R W.
Harsh? I it’s also my opinion, no ones asking you to agree with it. I find your repeated posts about Vlaar somewhat tedious but isn’t the site about VIEWS? What you going to do, ban me again because you don’t like what I’ve posted? 🙂
B6… Well said mate., 100% correct!
Lads any transfer rumours.. are we being linked to anyone?
Yep we are being linked to richard dunne 🙂
Lol..
I don’t get it Oohah. You slate so much to do with current first team squad, but you defend Bent. He was paid £65k per week to score goals and yes he did just that in his first season. But for a senior pro he never put a shift in and that’s why he fell out of favour. And for him and others to be excl from first team training, they’re something else that must have gone on. So he pissed in the wind and now he blames the wind for making him wet. Glad he’s gone.
Fair point but we knew what he was like before we signed him no point whining after the event. Yes he is not known for his work rate but neither was Owen and other so called class strikers
Oohah.. Yes mate, but he shouldnt be playing the victim. He got the treatment he deserved. Takes the piss out of fans who struggle to pay for a ST. At least he could give 100%.. Its the very least we should expect!
Well said Streetly….oohah…. You are the master of double standards! 🙂
One thing is for sure the other 9 Fulham players are gonna have to work that bit harder with bent AND berbatov on the pitch! 😉
NM… LOL mate… Not forgetting Tarabt!
Omg! Christ I did forget about him aswell, jeez those Fulham boys best get on their fitness training double time 🙂
So David Luiz is injured at least
Wahooo. We’ll only lose 3:0 now. Seriously, we will lose tomorrow. But Saturday, 3 points my lord, 3 points are ours. UTV
I’m inclined to agree mate, I just can’t see us getting anything tomorrow unfortunately, I’ll be happy to see a goal but even that’ll be tough
Thoroughly disappointed absolutely everybody thinks we’re going to lose by at least 3 goals.
Where’s the gumption that saturday’s result merits?
I think we’ll score 1 at least, but yes, I concede we might lose.
Bloody Hull tigers only lost by 2 though ffs!
I’m going for a draw and looking forward more to the Pool game.
Seeing as I’m down the smoke, I was contemplating going to the game.
Can’t bear to pay top dollar to sit with the home fans though.
Its a good point Anon. We have played Chelsea 42 times since 1992 and we have won – 11; Drawn – 12; and lost 19. That’s not a bad record, so a draw or a win are very possible.
Anyone know if there is any substance in the Shawcross rumour ? Maybe offering Ireland as bate. I can’t believe how nobody has gone in for McCarthy and Mcmanaman at Wigan. Have always rated Shawcross would be fantastic news if true IMO .
We’ve also never beaten Chelsea under Mourinho, although his Chelsea only won 3 of the 7 games, so I’d say a draw is likely.
Yes we have, we beat them in what I think was Mourinho’s last game
Yep we got him the sack lol
Bloody hell if we do get him, oohahs gonna rename the blog to ‘Shawcross News and Views’
At least it’s better than the other defender I’ve seen him mention. Scott Dann News and Views.
I think I can’t afford to go to the Chelsea match tomorrow as I only have enough cash to go out on Thursday for a long standing night out and then survive the rest of the month by the skin of my teeth. I’m sorely sorely tempted though. £50 a ticket plus £25 or so for a train ticket kills it for me though. I’m also being optimistic and thinking we’ll lose by more than one goal, but that’s based on my predictions always being wrong. I was with an Arsenal supporter today, albeit a realistic one who isn’t an arsehole. He wasn’t very happy and reckons we shouldn’t have had two penalties. I explained to him what a Gabby was and how it’s one of our very best weapons. Can’t wait to see him in action tomorrow and for Wiemann to start banging in goals (remember ManU last season?). Delph is a goal waiting to happen, Luna might not be the perfect defender but what a run and pass from Wiemann on Saturday. So many positives, so much better than the dirge McLeish and to a certain extent Houllier presented us with, miles better than this time last season. Who cares if Chelsea do beat us, I’m sure we’re going to give it all we’ve got tomorrow. UTV!
I think one thing that may work in our favour tomorrow is that Mourinho will almost certainly change his team around. With 3 games in a week and Man U up next, he will prob rest certain player. This could really work in our favour…although then again, the players that may come in (Mata, Lukaku, etc) arent bad either! The advantage we have is that our first XI is starting to gel nicely together.
I never thought of Monday’s game, but considering that I’m sure that Mourinho see’s the United game as more vital than this one. So he could try out some of his new signings.
Hopefully, that means that Ba starts up front
Shawcross won’t happen, stoke will look for at least 12 mill for him and he will be lookin for top wages so forget about it, mcmanaman is a little scumbag who isn’t great anyway and McCarthy is still at wigan because they are lookin for about 15 mill for him and obviously not many teams can pay that except the top teams who probably already hav better players in midfield, shawcross and McCarthy would b great signings but cost too much, not just for villa but for 80% of prem teams. Darren bent is a good goalscorer nothin more, he is lazy but he has always had the same style of play he wasn’t just lazy cause he was with us and we paid him too much, give him proper wingers and he will score as he did for us, really don’t understand what some fans ar upset about, bent did what he was bought for until we sold all the players that made him good, goin for a 2-2 draw 2moro, same score i went for the arse haha hopefully goes the same way!
That’s the issue with dealing with English team’s, we all want an inflated price for any player and huge wages.
It’s just cheaper to buy and sell to international clubs because you don’t end up strengthening your rivals.
I agree for both players. McCarthy would provide great cover for the back 4 and Shawcross would compliment Okore very nicely. Problem is, we need 20-25m to buy them! Wages wouldnt be out of our budget, but the price tags are.
I still think we will bring in one more player before september, but i doubt it will be either of these two….
shawcross and McCarthy would be great signings, im surprised they are still at wigan along with mcmanaman, id have though at least Martinez would’ve been in for them two, he took kone but none of the other 3,(the other being Maloney) maybe there’s a reason? aside from Whelan thinking he’s selling Messi and getting stupid with the money, all summer ive not heard one rumor regarding the wigan trio, surprising really.
I’ve wanted shawcross for ages I’m axed sky 4 Havnt signed him
testing testing 1 2 1 2
I could see stoke selling shawcross if a decent bid came in, they desperately need strikers and money to buy said strikers or they are going down this season, just don’t know how they are gonna score enough goals to win games, shawcross, the defence and bergovic can only do so much.
I also think shawcross would fit the current villa ethic.
Shame we didn’t part ex bent then for shawcross would of been great business
Hey hey im back finally hows it going? Think chelski will beat us 3 0 sorry lads jose back and hasent lost at the bridge but you know what they ssay about records
villa 1996 I will say welcome back mate, same things Vlaar, Vlaar, Vlaar, other than that sod all, hey Sponsorships down only 5 million,was 8 million last year.
I’m told that the Anvil Inn Sutton Coldfield show all the Villa games live.
My lad had to close his down Bill sky came at him and if he does it again 6 thousand fine, and that was running Italian sky.
Cheers Bill P, Ill give that a miss then and find a stream. Something to do with the premier league logo isn’t it? Hence that’s why its sorta smudged on the streams.
In general sky will leave you alone providing you are still a sky subscriber. as soon as a pub cancels a sky package they are lined up for a visit from sky package(unknowingly) to check if they are broadcasting foreign channels.
Foreign channels can be broadcast as long as the logo is covered. In our local they have software that covers it