EPL News: Chelsea’s performance analysis vs. West Bromwich Albion - Part 1
Malouda drew first blood when he scored the first goal of the season for Chelsea. The goal occurred in the 5th minute of the match only when Chelsea players became a little aggressive. Drogba took the free kick which was mishandled by West Brom goalkeeper Carson. Malouda took advantage of that by taking advantage of an easy catch.
Chelsea continued to produce harmonious plays with synergy and fired offensive attempts one after the other. Their forwards in essence had become relentless.
It was in the 8th minute that Ashley Cole made a brilliant drive from the left and gave a beautiful pass in the penalty area. Frank Lampard ran in to connect with it but was just a bit late.
It seemed that the ball with West Brom angered the Chelsea team as they ran in to close the gaps so that it was difficult to pass the ball. They doubled up while tickling as one defender tackled and the other one ran to grab the ball. It definitely seemed that the Italian manager Carlo Ancelotti had certainly taught them a couple of new tricks.
Ancelotti had done his job in improving the defensive skills of his team. Chelsea looked quicker and that helped them close in on the West Brom players.
All this resulted badly for Albion as they weren’t able to make any game plays. Soon afterward the goal was scored, heavy rain broke in and dampened the field. The tempo of the game therefore slowed and it became harder to control the ball.
In the 11th minute, Albion made an attacking comeback as their forward Dorrans made a good strike in the lower right corner. But Cech was in spectacular form as he reached on time to make a stellar save.
The rain was certainly slowing down. As a result, a lot of passing in the midfield started to take place by both teams. Chelsea obviously had better men at the post and therefore dominated in centre. There ball possession also grew because of this factor.
In the 14th minute, Albion won a free kick from the left flank but all players missed their attempts to score mainly because of the solid defence produced by the Chelsea team.
Chelsea was up for revenge on the attack and started some fast passing in the midfield followed by close attacks near the Albion box. There were two close attempts but none of them could be finished.
At the start of the 16th minute, Essien handed a free kick to Albion but they weren’t able to capitalise from it. The closing in technique that Ancelotti made the Blues learn was certainly paying off.
There was some brilliant passing by West Brom in the 18th minute which eventually resulted in a marvellous build up and a goal was scored, however it was rightly ruled as offside.
Chelsea defender Paulo Ferreira was performing brilliantly. He is usually a full back but performs his additional responsibilities on the right wing beautifully. He was one of the reasons why Chelsea dominated from the right wing.
This does lead to think that when the Brazilian prodigy Ramires joins the Blues, there will be some adjustments needed in various positions. For instance Mikel and Essien would be placed in the centre midfield and Ramires will play on the right.
Chelsea also have the advantage of Yossi Benayoun. Not only can the midfielder play on both wings but he can play as a defensive midfielder as well as an attacking one. This will give the Blues to shuffle around their players and sort out their final positions.
Both John Terry and Alex defended superbly and barely lost the ball. There were some close calls for both teams in the 21st minute but defenders from both teams cleared the danger off. This happened till the latter part of the game when Drogba broke the wall on a free kick to score a goal.
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