Chelsea 3-0 BATE Borisov: unplayable Ruben Loftus-Cheek nets hat-trick

in , , , , , , ,

In a routine night of football, Chelsea dispatched BATE 3-0.

The win was both routine and impressive, owing to the nature of the goals – coming as they did from the boot of young Ruben Loftus-Cheek; the first Chelsea hat-trick in Europe since Didier Drogba over a decade ago. Who were the winners and losers?

Winner: Ruben Loftus-Cheek

He’s been itching for more minutes, begging for them really. Well he got his chance against BATE and took it with both hands, both feet and probably his head too. This was a monumental display from the young Englishman.

Ten minutes into the match and Loftus-Cheek had already put Chelsea into a commanding lead. His first goal showed how he can offer something that Mateo Kovacic and Ross Barkley (late equaliser against Manchester United notwithstanding) cannot: goals.

Loftus-Cheek’s sensibility is to attack, both with and without the ball. And the way he drifted forward, pulling away from the BATE defence to be open and then lashing the ball home under the closing pressure from defenders was sublime.

His second showed his power and strength, holding his marker off from a corner like one would an errant child, he stabbed home Willian’s cross. The contrasting nature of both goals shows the vast nature of his skill-set and just why he could be oh so valuable for Chelsea. This is a kid who can literally (not figuratively, but literally) do almost everything you want a footballer to do.

And his third goal was just everything he offers in one neat package. First he carried the ball forward and fed the ball wide to Pedro. The Spaniard worked the ball into a shooting position and saw the ball blocked away; but when it fell back to the Englishman he simply placed the ball into the far corner of the net from the edge of the box. The ball bounced in. 3-0. Hat-trick.

Hats off, really. Loftus-Cheek was unplayable all night long. Alright, it was just BATE. But there were seasoned veterans out there on the pitch, guys like Pedro and Willian, who didn’t look as dominant as Loftus-Cheek did. His run into the heart of the BATE box with 20 minutes left summed up the outrageousness of his talent. If he wanted to make his case to manager Maurizio Sarri, well, he did that in a big bad way.

Loser: Aliaksandr Hleb

The once-great playmaker, a visionary who was so good he illuminated Cesc Fabregas as an attacking force during their time together at Arsenal and played alongside Pedro at Barcelona, had hoped to outshine his former team-mates on his return to English shores.

No such luck for the Belarussian. There were a few glimpses of the old genius, a few lovely touches, but at 37 years old he was always going to struggle to truly impact the game against Sarri’s slick and well-oiled machine.

The crunching tackle Mateo Kovacic hit him with late in the first half kind of summed up his evening. Hleb was moving through midfield like he used to, and he got smashed from behind by the Croatian so hard he was left on the ground in agony.

Winner: Callum Hudson-Odoi

The Stamford Bridge crowd knew the significance of Callum Hudson-Odoi’s 60th minute introduction into this game. Hudson-Odoi’s entrance was greeted with a roar as loud as any of the goals to that point. They knew this was important.

Hudson-Odoi shone in pre-season, playing in “the Hazard role” whilst the Belgian was enjoying his post-World Cup holiday. He shone beyond all expectation, which is why so many were surprised to see that Hudson-Odoi didn’t feature at all in both the EFL Cup and Europa League. Where was their boy wonder?

Well, they had to wait, but they finally go to see him against BATE. And he was good, not transformative or anything but with a couple of moments that gave a hint as to the scope of his talent. One only hopes that with qualification all but secured, Hudson-Odoi will now see more minutes in the Europa League, giving us all a bigger taste of his brilliance.

Loser: Ethan Ampadu

Ethan Ampadu has showed, in his performances for Wales, just what he is capable of as a deep-lying playmaker (in midfield or defence). It was easy to see where he would slot into the Chelsea “b-team” for Europa League games, getting crucial minutes to develop.

Yet those minutes never came for Ampadu. He had to watch as the creaking corpse of Gary Cahill took the field next to Andreas Christensen instead. Tonight, however, there would have surely been a great chance for him to get on the field. If not from the start, then surely in the second half after Loftus-Cheek’s third goal. Yet because of a back injury, he was forced to watch from the stands, still waiting for his debut.

Winner: Maurizio Sarri

Is this guy for real? Sarri’s system was so complex and demanding that it was surely going to take an age to really sink in to this Chelsea side, right? Wrong. Chelsea have adopted Sarrismo at an alarming rate. Sure, they’ve not ironed out all the kinks yet, but they are progressing so quickly, which can only be seen as a good thing from a Chelsea perspective.

If Sarri’s  Chelsea can manage to be this effective and consistent whilst they’re still learning the ropes, to the point where even the “b-team” that lacks the genius of Jorginho can play Sarrismo so well, just how good are they going to be when the players are fully settled in?? This could get scary.

Loser: Olivier Giroud

It’s funny how things go in cycles, isn’t it? For the longest time this season, the focus was on Alvaro Morata and his lack of goals. His various misfortunes, how down he looked and how Giroud was the better fit for what Chelsea wanted and needed from their striker. Then the Spaniard scored a couple of important goals, and now people aren’t on him.

Yet now people have noticed that, hey, Olivier Giroud hasn’t scored a single goal all season. Moreover, he hasn’t scored for Chelsea since May. The start of May. Suddenly, one has to ask, should we be concerned? Giroud couldn’t score against BATE, and what’s more is he looked really bothered by his inability to score – which is almost the most troubling thing. If he can’t hack this lot, who can he deal with?

The post Chelsea 3-0 BATE Borisov: unplayable Ruben Loftus-Cheek nets hat-trick appeared first on Squawka News.



From Squawka NewsSquawka News https://ift.tt/2z2kPm6
Labels: , , , , , , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)