Opposition View: Chelsea

New season, new Chelsea. Following the mutiny on the terraces towards the end of Maurizio Sarri’s year in charge, there is renewed optimism around Stamford Bridge for the new campaign.

There are many reasons for that. The hated Sarri’s departure. Lampard’s legendary status among Blues’ fans. And the fact that, at long bloody last, Chelsea seem to have a manager who is not only willing to give their ridiculous number of talented players a chance, but is also going to get the time in which to do it.

All of that may lead to a transitional season, but it seems that Chelsea fans are determined to enjoy it. We spoke to Chidge from award winning podcast Chelsea FanCast about Sarri’s sacking, Lampard’s appointment and why our former loanee Fikayo Tomori could go onto become a Chelsea legend.

Let’s start with last season. From the outside, it seemed like Maurizio Sarri did a decent job by taking you back into the Champions League and winning the Europa League. Why was there such a strong feeling that he should go among Chelsea fans?
While it may have seemed odd to those on the outside looking in, especially considering the fact that we won the Europa League and finished third, it was a really horrible season for so many reasons. Sarri’s stubbornness and intransigence in team selection – think N’Golo Kante, Jorginho and Gonzalo Higuain – having favourites and playing players out of position or when clearly out of form; an unwillingness to play the youth players enough; sticking to 4-3-3 no matter what and rarely if ever adapting the opposition with any pragmatism; the style of football was turgid and bored most match goers rigid – possession for the sake of it, sideways passing, no cutting edge and an over reliance on Hazard; a complete lack of connection with and respect for the supporters and endless talk about his bloody philosophy, inferring that it was all about him and not Chelsea.

This was exacerbated by a season long toxic feud played out on social media between match goers (deemed backwards looking, old, bald and alcoholic) and what were termed ‘Sarri Cultists’ who blindly believed in everything he was doing and seemed to think that football was something played only on FIFA 19 not on the pitch. All in all it sucked the life and joy out of going to Stamford Bridge.

That said, Sarri achieved what should have been expected by finishing third and winning a trophy and getting to a final for which he should be thanked (kind of) although we ended up third largely due to the incompetence of Arsenal and Spurs who fell away badly. On top of all this, we witnessed some of the worst and most humiliating defeats at Chelsea for 30 years or more.

Frank Lampard is now back in the hot seat. We’re presuming that appointment has gone down pretty well?
It’s a breath of fresh air and combined with the realism due to the transfer ban and losing Hazard precipitating a move toward blooding the youth, Stamford Bridge is a very happy place. Most people I know are philosophical and patient about where we are, love Frank Lampard unconditionally and really enjoying what Frank is trying to do with the football.

What are your realistic expectations from this season? You’ve mentioned the transfer ban and of course there is Lampard’s lack of experience as a manager
Genuinely whatever will be. I think if we continue to improve, we are capable of getting top four judging by the difficulties Arsenal, Spurs and Man Utd continue to have. What might count against us are the inconsistencies one gets from younger players, some of the older players getting past their best and how badly we get affected by injuries – which right now is quite!

You’d have to be a pretty ardent hater of Chelsea not to be excited by the amount of young English players now getting a chance under Lampard. Who’s impressed you the most so far?
Mason Mount, Fikayo Tomori and Tammy Abraham have all impressed but if I have to choose one it would be Tomori. He looks like he was born to play for Chelsea and just looks like he’s playing for us for years. Mount has the talent to become a fixture and one of our key players for years to come and I’m amazed how unphased Abraham has been taking on the responsibility of the number nine shirt.

Speaking of Tomori, we had him on loan for the second half of our 2016-17 promotion season and he did a dependable job whenever he stepped in. Sounds like the Chelsea faithful are fans!
He’s absolutely superb. Great on the ball, reads the game well, calm and assured and a physical presence too. He’s a Chelsea legend in the making.

We’ve read quite a bit about Chelsea’s lack of home wins – and Brighton have a spectacular record at being the opponent’s that these runs end against. Is that a concern or is victory at the Bridge not that far away?
Yes, of course it’s a concern not picking up the wins at home and that’s mainly been down to some poor defending from the team as a whole, but the performances, especially against Liverpool last weekend, tell me that the first home win in the league is not far away – hopefully this Saturday!

What did you make of Brighton in our two meetings last season? We pushed you close at the Amex but our trip to Stamford Bridge was somewhat of a pathetic showing at the very height of Christ Hughton’s anti-football stage.
I have a terrible memory for matches, but I seem to recall that Brighton tried to kick lumps out of Chelsea at the Amex and intimidate them (many teams tried that tactic last year) and we were still feeling positive as Sarriball had not been completely found out then.

The return at the Bridge toward the end of the season washed over me as we were in the midst of internecine warfare. It was just after losing to Everton in a particularly inept and limp wristed performance and the Cardiff away game where we mugged Cardiff with the off-side Cesar Azpilicueta goal. By this stage the away fans had already turned on Sarri, so the 3-0 win against Brighton was a bit of light relief. I seem to remember that Ruben Loftus-Cheek scored which was obviously pleasing.

What are Chelsea’s weaknesses? Anything that Graham Potter could try to exploit?
Set pieces, set pieces and did I mention set pieces. We’ve shipped more goals than all but Watford and Norwich this season and most of them have come as a result of set pieces. We are marking zonally at corners largely because Lampard believes that we are too small a side to defend man to man.

It’s a problem one way or another that needs to be ironed out quick. We have also been vulnerable to the counter-attack, especially when Kante has not been playing as Jorginho and Mateo Kovacic do not cover the defence well. Due to the tactic of pressing high, if we lose the ball up field then the gap between the attack and defence can be alarming and good and pacey teams can exploit that. Moving to 3-4-3 or 4-3-3 makes us look more solid than the 4-2-3-1 employed earlier in the season.

Who do you think is winning the league this year, who will be the top four and who’s going down?
1. Man City; 2. Liverpool; 3 Leicester; 4 Chelsea. Relegated: Norwich; Newcastle; Watford

Finally, a prediction for what’s going to happen on Saturday please?
Obviously I have to say Chelsea to win, but if they put in a performance like they did against Liverpool last weekend then I think they’ll be too strong for Brighton. Putting the chances away will be vital as the longer we go without scoring the more likely we are to concede from a set piece, which I can see as Brighton’s main focus of attack. I’m going 3-1 – ever the optimist.

Thanks to Chidge for taking the time to answer our questions. You can listen to Chelsea FanCast on their website and follow them on Twitter.