Curiouscrow

I think we can all agree Chelsea have been involved in two of the most thrilling Premier League fixtures of this 2023-24 season so far. On Sunday evening at Stamford Bridge, the blues hosted reigning champions and treble winners Manchester City in an entertaining contest that would end in a 4-4 draw. Five days prior, the blues made a short trip to north London where they faced their neighbouring rivals Tottenham Hotspurs which saw them grab a 4-1 win against a Spurs side who ended the match with nine players on the pitch.

This was a very eventful contest amidst controversial decisions and VAR being called into action on numerous occasions. Chelsea is having a bizarre season to say the least. Since Todd Boehly took over as the Chelsea owner in May 2022, Chelsea have had a major turnover of players and staff.

They have spent over €1 billion across just three transfer windows, splashing staggering amounts of money on players like Enzo Fernández (€121m), Moisés Caicedo (€116m) and Mykhailo Mudryk (€70m) to name a few. In the summer, manager Mauricio Pochettino took over as Chelsea manager who is of course very familiar with the English Premier League (EPL), having previously managed Spurs for 6 years.

Despite all the money spent and changes in personnel, Chelsea currently sit at 10th place in the EPL table with just 16 points. Their form has been poor since the start of the season, however they seem to come to life when faced with the league’s elite teams. They have dropped points against teams like West Ham, Nottingham Forest, Aston Villa and Brentford. These are the games which I’m sure Chelsea fans would feel confident about getting the 3 points but instead they have lost all these games and yet managed to draw against Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester City and managed a win over Spurs.

Chelsea’s Opener Against Liverpool

Chelsea’s 1-1 draw against Liverpool was their first game of this EPL season and there was not much to report on as both teams were clearly still testing their players’ match fitness after the summer break and looking to ease their way into the season.

It was still a decent game of at times end-to-end football and an intriguing battle in midfield with the likes of Enzo Fernández dictating terms and winning majority of his battles against counterpart Mac Allister who was also still finding his feet in this Liverpool side having signed from Brighton in the summer. Chelsea were the better team overall, creating more chances and playing with fluidity, however their finishing in front of goal was lacking.

Dominant Display Against Arsenal

Leading up to this classic London derby, Chelsea were in a good run of form, winning the last 3 consecutive matches across all competitions. Meanwhile, Arsenal were full of confidence having just beaten Manchester City and positioned 2nd on the table behind Spurs.

Hence, majority of fans knew they were in for a decent clash but I don’t think anyone really expected Chelsea to come out of the blocks swinging like they did in the first half, completely taking the game to Arsenal with high tempo, fluid one-touch passes. Players like Cole Palmer and Raheem Sterling were constantly interchanging positions and making runs that baffled the Arsenal defence. Arsenal’s William Saliba conceded a penalty very early in the game due to a handball inside the box.

Cole Palmer stepped up and calmly slotted the ball home to give Chelsea the lead in the 15th minute. Arsenal may have had more share of ball possession but whenever Chelsea got the ball, they instantly looked threatening and were playing with a real purpose. Chelsea had completely nullified Arsenal’s wingers by doubling up on them.

The midfield of Gallagher, Fernández and Caicedo did well to out muscle Arsenal’s Jorginho and captain Ødegaard to win possession back in dangerous areas and immediately launch an attack. Within 50 minutes, Chelsea were deservedly 2-0 up and it looked like it was all over for Arsenal. Mudryk’s attempted cross into the penalty box was miss-hit but luckily for him caught Arsenal’s goalkeeper off-guard and managed to dip above him into the net.

No doubt this was a misjudgement from David Raya and was an embarrassing goal to concede by the gunners. Subsequently, Chelsea were completely fine tuned into their rhythm, playing with confidence, moving the ball quicker, arriving first to every challenge whereas Arsenal looked distraught and completely out of it.

However, after a couple of positive substitutions made by Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta, the gunners were slowly starting to play with more intent and began pressing higher up the pitch. Under pressure by the Arsenal high press, Chelsea goalkeeper Robert Sánchez misplaced a pass which was intercepted and struck first-time by Declan Rice.

The ball lofted over Sánchez into an empty net which ended up being the stroke of good luck Arsenal needed. From there, the gunners pushed on, determined to at least salvage a point at Stamford Bridge and after an intense period of probing around the Chelsea box, Trossard found the equaliser in the 84th minute ghosting in at the back post to tap the ball home from a perfectly measured cross delivered by Bukayo Saka.

This pendulum swing of a game ended 2-2. Again, just like against Liverpool, Chelsea were the better team and deserved to take all three points, however a lapse in concentration and poor finishing in front of goal costed them two precious points.

Chaotic Encounter with Spurs

Chelsea versus Spurs has never failed to deliver historically and this encounter definitely kept the tradition going. This was probably the most thrilling game of the season by a mile and watching it as a neutral, I can say it’s one of those games which reiterates why we love the sport. From the starting whistle up until the full-time whistle blown, I was on the edge of my seat holding my breadth.

The game started at a very high pace, Tottenham were confident playing the ball out from the goalkeeper, beating the Chelsea press and then creating chances. Chelsea looked slightly off the pace in the first 15 minutes, especially after conceding the early goal to Kulusevski. It was an end-to-end game as both teams were just focused on outscoring the other.

Nicholas Jackson had a shot saved by Vicario in the 11th minute and soon after, Spurs played some excellent quick passes to carve open Chelsea’s defence with Son completing the move by putting the ball in back of the net for the second Spurs goal. However it was not be as VAR had ruled Son offside – correct decision.

The game was more intense now and both teams were playing with no brakes on, players were lunging in making challenges and conceding a lot of fouls. The boiling point came in the 18th minute when Destiny Udogie lunged in with both feet attempting a tackle on Sterling who luckily pulled his foot out of the way in the last second.

Udogie was shown the yellow card which many including myself thought should have been a red card. Nonetheless, VAR agreed with the on-field referee’s decision. Understandably, following Udogie’s challenge, tempers flared and the game was heated now. Chelsea were playing with a chip on their shoulder. Spurs were playing a very high defensive line attempting to catch Chelsea’s forwards offside at every possible chance.

It was a very busy night for VAR as Sterling managed to score in the 21st minute however was disallowed by VAR due to a handball in the buildup which again was the right decision. Shortly after, another Chelsea attack ends with the ball in Vicario’s net, this time from a shot struck by Caicedo but VAR intervened again to rule this offside as Nicholas Jackson was standing in an offside position when the shot came in.

Amidst all the chaos, during the buildup Romero put in a reckless challenge on Fernández inside the penalty box before clearing the ball away. This was checked by VAR and a penalty was awarded to Chelsea and Romero was sent off with a red card.

Finally Chelsea were able to equalise through a Palmer penalty. Soon after half-time, Chelsea were on the attack again and Udogie lunged in on Sterling and once again got the timing wrong. This time, the referee made no mistake and brandished a second yellow card which saw Spurs go down to 9 men. Despite this, Spurs continued to gamble by playing a high defensive line which was sometimes positioned inside the Chelsea half.

Chelsea were impatient for a long time and were playing right into their rivals’ hand by launching passes forward behind the Spurs back four but the defence timed their offside trap well and managed to frustrate the blues. Eventually in the 75th minute, Chelsea knocked the ball around with pace in their own half before playing a through pass to Sterling who this time was onside. Sterling then preceded to setup Nicholas Jackson for an easy tap-in for Chelsea to take the lead. Two minutes later, Spurs saw a freekick routine volleyed home by Eric Dier for what seemed like the Spurs equaliser but upon another VAR check, it was ruled out for offside.

Just before the end of the 90 minutes, Spurs had one last chance to equalise when Son was played through and managed to dig out a decent shot on his left foot but Chelsea’s goalkeeper was equal to it and managed to stop the ball from nestling into the bottom corner.

In the 94th minute, Palmer knocked the ball forward from his own half to take on the Spurs left-back in a foot race, instead teammate Gallagher anticipated the ball and took it in his stride with acres of space to run into and similar to Chelsea’s second goal, he setup Nicholas Jackson for his second tap-in and the blues third goal of the night. Spurs continued with their high defensive line but Chelsea had already cracked the code and now they could create a chance whenever they wished.

In the 97th minute, another long ball was played through the high Spurs backline, this time a direct ball for Jackson to run onto who considered playing in Mudryk for a tap-in but instead took the ball around the incoming Vicario with ease and slotted the ball home to complete his hat-trick. The final score was 4-1 to Chelsea but it was a thrilling rollercoaster ride from start to finish, with 2 red cards, 6 total yellow cards, 33 fouls committed, numerous injuries and disallowed goals.

Going Toe-to-Toe Against the Champions

Going into this game, majority of fans would have expected Manchester City to dominate Chelsea and push past them with ease, considering where both teams stand in the league tables and the usual blistering run of form the champions are in. Things did not go as planned for City as similar to the Arsenal game, Chelsea played with high intensity from the very start and looked to cause problems for City with their high press and high work-rate. Haaland opened the scoring from the penalty spot after Cucurella brought him down in the box and was confirmed a foul and penalty by VAR.

Four minutes later, 39-year old Thiago Silva headed the ball into the Man City net from a corner kick to equalise for Chelsea. With both teams going for it and leaving gaps open behind them, it looked like we were in for another thriller.

Chelsea were on the attack and in the 37th minute a poor ball was played forward to Reiss James but City defender Gvardiol made a mistake and didn’t deal with it allowing James to fire the ball into the on-rushing Sterling who had an empty net to tap the ball into. Chelsea couldn’t hold the lead until halftime as Manchester City used a short corner routine to whip the ball into the box which was headed into the net by Akanji without anyone marking him.

Just after half-time, Chelsea give the ball away in a dangerous position and City do what they do best. Three quick passes in behind the Chelsea backline and Haaland had restored the lead. The game had slowed down slightly since City’s third goal. The introduction of Mudryk livened things up as his first contribution was to run at Walker with pace before laying it off to Gallagher who struck the ball cleanly from outside the box, the shot was pushed away by Ederson but only as far as Nicholas Jackson who made no mistake and slotted the ball home for Chelsea’s equaliser.

In the 86th minute, Rodri fired a shot from outside the box which took a deflection off Thiago Silva to give City the lead once again. I thought this was the end of the game, but Chelsea never gave up and managed to win a penalty deep into stoppage time in the 95th minute. Cole Palmer rifled it past Ederson to make it 4-4.

Chelsea have risen to the big occasions so far this season by showing resilience, tenacity and confidence. The positive results against the current top-4 teams in the league shows the huge potential that this Chelsea squad possess and the type of scintillating football they can play when the players are fired up and the odds are stacked against them. For all the Chelsea fans out there, this could be signs of a team finally coming together and being guided by an experienced manager in Pochettino.