Chelsea endured a shaky start to the game as they struggled to solve Leicester City’s pressing throughout the first half. However, Leicester were unable to capitalize on this, creating relatively little. Lampard made three changes at half-time which helped improve Chelsea’s performance, including the introduction of Ross Barkley who ended up scoring the winner. Tactical […]
Predictably, City were able to press Chelsea in their own half and monopolize possession almost immediately in this match. The false nine role of Bernardo Silva and accompanying midfield arrangements posed an interesting prospect for Chelsea to deal with. Ultimately though, Chelsea came through with two decisive transition moments, firstly for Christian Pulisic’s goal in […]
Liverpool were trailing early on thanks to Willian’s powerful strike and some questionable goalkeeping. They were then handed the majority of possession, in which they were relatively well structured and put together a few decent sequences, but were ultimately unable to make it count in the final third. Chelsea sealed their win with a counterattacking […]
Bayern Munich’s flexible buildup with Joshua Kimmich and Thiago at the heart of things helped them to gain control of the game against Chelsea’s 5-2-3 pressing. The movement of the likes of Thomas Müller and Serge Gnabry behind Chelsea’s midfield line proved hard for the home side to control. Bayern finally went ahead early in […]
Club football has entered its decisive phase, with lots to play for in every competition. Last week we previewed the first four matches of the knock-out stage. Today we focus on Tuesday’s ties of the most important tournament in club football: the Champions League. Article by Manasvin Andra, Kareem Bianchi and Joel Parker. Chelsea – […]
Olivier Giroud gave Chelsea an early lead amid a passive start from Spurs, which handed Chelsea control of the match early on. Spurs gradually became more aggressive as the game went on, but Chelsea’s pressing was suitably intense and was often able to stifle Spurs’ buildup. Marcos Alonso doubled Chelsea’s lead just after half-time, meaning […]
With Leicester City and Chelsea exchanging good spells on the ball, both were left disappointed as neither team could grab all three points. Brendan Rodgers and Frank Lampard installed effective pressing systems to go against the opposition building from the back, which created some brilliant football between two of the Premier League’s best teams. Tactical […]
An interesting tactical battle was developing at Stamford Bridge when David Luiz was dismissed after 25 minutes, and Chelsea subsequently took the lead. With ten men, Arsenal had next to no attacking output, but somehow managed to keep the game competitive, before Gabriel Martinelli capitalized on N’Golo Kanté’s slip to equalize. Arsenal sat back and […]
Jahanbakhsh’s spectacular bicycle kick ultimately drew what was a tactically rich game conditioned heavily by Brighton’s changes in midfield. In the first half, Chelsea initially dominated by exploiting the narrowness of Brighton’s midfield diamond, until Potter shifted his team to a flat 4-4-2 shape when defending and evened out the tables. During the second half, […]
Mikel Arteta’s initial changes sprung a more than successful surprise upon Chelsea, which eventually, was counteracted by Frank Lampard’s own intelligent tactical alterations. In the end, the side on the losing end could feel most hard done by given the circumstances of their defeat. Tactical analysis and match report by Peter Munnelly. In his home […]