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| Back off Michy, he's mine |
If we’re looking for obvious positives in Chelsea’s 3-2 loss to Real Madrid last night, it would be that they won’t have to face them in Champions League this season. Going 3-0 down to Real Madrid’s subs in the opening 45 minutes was not ideal. Hands up if you had flashbacks to last year’s pre-season!
While Real Madrid did have some excellent players on the pitch - they were not even close to a regular starting XI. If you do feel like a bit of casual self-harm and want to reflect back on the first half, remember there was no Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale, The Ramos , Luka Modric, Toni Kroos,
Thanks to the European Championship, Chelsea were able to play a bit of football in the opening 10 mins - one could argue that they appeared to dominate up to the goal. But then it all went a bit pear shaped. When a full back scores the first two that easily. And then he only goes and assists the third, some questions may need asking. Marcelo is a great player. But to put his goals in perspective, he scored as many in 26 mins last night as he managed in the league last season. While the midfield should have done better, the personnel there is still a work in progress. The back four are likely the defensive unit that will face West Ham in a fortnight.
Just over a week ago Antonio Conte said that “Ruben [Loftus-Cheek] is young with great potential. I like him a lot in the position of striker. He can improve a lot because he has great potential, good technique, good personality and he is good one v one.” No word on whether he wants to retract the striker bit after last night.
Obviously, that’s slightly unfair, hes young, it’s his first time in that position with the first team. Theoretically he wouldn’t have been training for that in the buildup to the game, slotting in after Diego Costa was confirmed unavailable due to a ‘back injury’. He also wasn’t getting the service he may have expected. However you want to look at it, he certainly didn’t look comfortable there.
Thankfully for the 1000s of Chelsea supporters who made the trip to Ann Arbor, football is a game of two halves etc and so on.
While Chelsea opted for strong substitutes, Real Madrid brought on their Castilla team so there was bound to be an upturn in fortunes for the boys in blue — or black as it were.
While I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself or read too much into the pre-season performances, I have to say I’m cautiously optimistic in the impact Michy Batshuayi could have. He’s comfortable on the ball and looks like he’s been playing with Chelsea a lot longer than he actually has. If Diego Costa does grace Chelsea with his presence this season, Batshuayi could be a fantastic foil should Conte opt for two up front. Batshuayi already made efforts to show his solidarity with the absent Costa via his oddly positioned socks.
If it were appropriate to create a paragraph of just emojis - just know that this one would be nothing but heart eye emojis. Back from captaining Belgium at Euro 2016, Eden Hazard needed just 25 minutes to net himself a brace. Under the watchful eye of Hazard’s boyhood hero, Zizou, I was hoping Don Antonio would wait a couple more days before letting him loose. But it was for the greater good and all that. Hazard reminding everyone (including Zidane and his sugar daddy) why he was player of the year just 15 months ago.
On points, that now puts Chelsea joint second in the very meaningful International Champions Cup. If any of you actually care about that table - get out. Get out now.
jb xx
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