Well, it was far from vintage, and more of a cagey, physical affair soundtracked by the jeers and cheers of a fiesty Goodison Park, but we've taken the points and ran with an opening 1-0 win over Everton.
It's ended the dreaded 'Goodison Curse' - a long run of games at Everton without a win, and it's set us up for the start of the season. It's given us some good match confidence ahead of some tricky upcoming fixtures in truth - an in-form Spurs next week at the Bridge before Leeds, which was a tricky game for us last season both home and away.
Anyway, this game:
EVERTON 0-1 CHELSEA Goals: Jorginho, penalty (45+9')
SUBS: RLC (for Chilwell 65'), Pulisic (for Mount 65'), Cucurella (for K2 75'), Broja (for Havertz 75'), Gallagher (for Jorginho 90')
I love this away kit by the way - we've actually smashed it with kits this year, or maybe anything is better than our home kit last year
I guessed this lineup basically man for man leading into the game - K2 keeps his place in the back three. The pundits were mentioning several times that this back three were slow and could be exploited - clearly they never watched our pre-season games with Koulibaly bossing it or any of Thiago Silva last year being a top class defender. Azpi was the shakiest of the three but he was by no means poor, and plus we're currently working on Fofana as another option, so no worries there.
I can't complain about a clean sheet, I think this new defense beats the old one, last season I think we would have leaked a few goals; the experience and quality we have with K2 + Silva is so strong. K2 has already settled well and, if we land Fofana, it'll be a very strong back line. I think after this game attack is more the priority, but we'll wait and see if we can agree a reasonable deal with Leicester. Both K2 and Silva had cramps and issues throughout the game, K2 was subbed off with injury, hopefully nothing too serious.
By the way, Mendy's had some slack in pre-season because he's made a few mistakes - some people said Kepa could be coming back for the number 1 spot. This game was much better for Edou, made some top saves to keep us in it, particularly a fingertip save from an Everton header to tip the ball over the bar, as well as some good blocks from point blank range. Clean sheet as well for him, no complaints from me.
Kante had his ups and downs this game but played well with Jorginho. His ball progression and dribbling has really improved since Tuchel joined and he had a decent game, but I think he could have been subbed earlier to maybe give Gallagher a bit more of a run-out when he came on.
Chilwell and James weren't at their dominant best but I can give them time. Chilwell was coming back from injury and lasted two thirds of the game, and Reece switched to LWB when that happened, somewhere he's not really familiar with. I will say though. Cucurella had an excellent game coming on. Really top quality. Looked high-tempo, good fast passes, almost got an assist for Sterling who was unlucky not to score. He's going to really challenge Chilly at LWB, which I think he will play more of for Chelsea rather than as a LCB. Very very happy.
Once again the attack didn't quite work as it was meant to. Mount and Havertz played down the wings with Sterling as a number 9. I've got no issues with Sterling as a 9, but I also think we could bring in a prolific ST and move him back to LW. This game Sterling was our best player in attack, he had several chances to score, one ruled out for offside, one deflected just wide (I'm a poet..) so no doubt he'll be scoring for us soon. Like the wingbacks I'm just going to give the excuse that it's opening game day, with a win we can allow a bit of time to iron out the creases a bit. We'll see what happens next week against Spurs.
What I can say is that Broja was positive coming off the bench, and maybe with a bit more time he could have had some quality oppurtunities. I think he could really challenge Havertz for a starting place, his physicality can really come in handy. And, wearing the Costa number 18; so glad he chose that number.
I'm going to continue to blame these early issues on the stupid American pre-season tour. Going from state to state for each game and seemingly spending more time doing branding stuff and free time activities will most likely lead to poor match training. I get the meeting with Todd and his team is important, and things are still early in the ownership, but compared to other teams and our rivals, we could have done things much much differently.
Not gonna lie, pretty sub-par, quotes from Tuchel in the post match essentially saying "a win is a win is a win", but "We have to get better" and I agree. Again, like I said at the start, very much a 'take the points and run' situation on our first game of the season, but I'm not going to sit here and criticize a win. Onto Spurs.