How Palace showed Chelsea need one signing urgently next month

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In a tight and tense London derby, Chelsea beat Crystal Palace 0-1.

The win lifts Chelsea five points clear of Arsenal in their efforts to secure fourth place and Champions League football. What did we learn?

1. Kanté finding his groove

Many (many) people doubted Maurizio Sarri when he moved N’Golo Kanté from the base of midfield. It just made no sense for Sarri to have his best defensive midfielder not play at the base. This is a most reductive way of looking at football, where stopping the opponent is more important than playing yourself.

Moreover, it undervalues the sheer amount of Kanté’s skill-set that is suited to pushing higher up the field. Kanté’s ability to press and harry his opponents means that he is adept at helping Chelsea win the ball high up the field, something Sarri values highly. Then there’s his pace and instincts, previously only used defensively, now being unleashed in attack.

Against Palace we saw the battling side of Kanté as a box-to-box midfielder very well illuminated as he constantly fought with the Palace midfielders to keep their attacks at bay and stop them penetrating down the middle of the pitch. And then in attack it was obviously Kanté who settled the game with a fabulously timed run and sharp finish. He’s really starting to get to grips with his new role, and that’s a scary prospect for Chelsea’s opponents.

2. Wan-Bissaka’s dominates again

 

There are very few full-backs in the world that you can trust to consistently dominate opponents in 50/50 duels. To battle with and stifle the production of, opposing wingers and wing-forwards. To be, in effect, a “shutdown full-back” (to borrow American sports parlance).

One of them was playing for Chelsea today, César Azpilicueta, but another was playing for Crystal Palace. Aaron Wan-Bissaka is just 21-years-old but has already developed a fierce reputation for dominating big sides in the duel department. In an age when full-backs are becoming so offensively-minded, one who can handle themselves at the back is priceless.

Wan-Bissaka’s record in terms of winning tackles against big teams is absolutely ridiculous in its consistency. Today against Chelsea he effectively shut Eden Hazard out of the game whenever the Belgian tried to make things happen on the left-flank, winning 3/3 tackles whilst making 3 interceptions and 4 clearances as well. A dominant display from a player who shouldn’t be at Palace for the start of 2019/20.

3. David Luiz is everything

He’s such an easy target for his defensive lapses, but David Luiz is utterly essential to everything Chelsea do. Obviously yes, Jorginho and his 178 touches and 150 completed passes (both the third most in that particular metric so far this season) is very obviously important, but David Luiz is equally so. In fact if you take into account the bravery it takes to be so expressive at centre-back, he’s almost more crucial.

The biggest thing that will set Sarri’s Chelsea on their way to excellence is the confidence to play their game even when under pressure, and that’s where David Luiz comes to the fore. He is a fearless presence, and sure sometimes that backfires on him, but often it allows him to make the difference. Even today, against Palace, it was David Luiz’s gorgeously-weighted chipped pass for N’Golo Kanté that broke the game open and gave Chelsea the win. A moment of supreme confidence and skill that made the difference.

4. Hodgson The Unappreciated

Kepa made 0 saves against Chelsea. That’s zero. So obviously it would be very easy to be hugely critical of Crystal Palace, but what we should also appreciate is that Roy Hodgson’s defensive structure allowed them to lose just 0-1 to Chelsea and not exactly be under siege for the entire game, and for people to consider that a disappointment. Hodgson has worked wonders to solidify and stabilise a Palace side that looked dead in the water when he arrived. He’s made them a side that can, on their day, genuinely make it tricky for the big sides. They lost by a single goal to Spurs and Manchester City and even held Manchester United and Arsenal. They are dogged, and that’s down to Hodgson.

5. Chelsea need a striker

Ever since Alvaro Morata changed from the no. 9 to the no. 29 voluntarily with no pressure from a new signing, it’s been clear that Chelsea needed to secure a new striker. Morata was their big bet having lost out on Romelu Lukaku and it’s clear the Spaniard lacks the mentality to be an elite side’s lead striker. That’s a shame, but made worse by Chelsea’s other striker being Olivier Giroud.

Now, Giroud is a World Cup winner and scored a sublime goal against Palace today where he may not have been offside, as he was ruled. But even before his injury at Selhurst Park, it was clear why Giroud’s uses for Chelsea is much the same as Morata’s: he’s a back-up. A squad guy with a very specific use. He can’t be a front-line striker, not for a club of their style.

Eden Hazard playing false nine is also a situational solution, not workable in the vast majority of scenarios. So it’s clear that Chelsea need to enter the transfer market to sign a striker, a true no. 9 to lead the line. Whether they do that in January or the summer, it is essential.

The post Sarri needs a striker: Five things learned from Chelsea 1-0 Palace appeared first on Squawka News.



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