Chelsea FC Pre-season Observations – Costa Looks Dominant, Fabregas Impressive & Luis Expectedly Solid

By Karan Yadav
10 years Ago

Chelsea have won four out of five pre-season games thus far. Here’s a look at how things have shaped up for new signings Diego Costa, Cesc Fabregas and Filipe Luis.

After the World Cup concluded in Brazil, all European clubs quickly started preparing for their respective leagues to start by embarking upon their pre-season campaigns. Considering the fact that this was a World Cup year and the players had lesser time on their hands, Chelsea decided not to pursue one of their usual trips to either United States of America or to Asia, and rather chose to tour Europe instead. The club were to play against Wycombe Wanderers, AFC Wimbledon, RZ Pellets, Olimpija Ljubljana, Vitesse Arnhem, Werder Bremen, Ferencvaros and Real Sociedad. The fixture list wasn’t glamorous per se, but in the current circumstances, it was a solid decision to stay closer to home, letting the players recuperate, get back in shape and at the same time, letting Mourinho fine-tune his tactics.

Chelsea started off on a positive note with a 0-5 victory over Wycombe and followed it up with a come-from-behind 2-3 win over AFC Wimbledon and salvaged a lackluster 1-1 draw against RZ Pellets, courtesy a Jeremie Boga wonder-goal. Chelsea then welcomed their new signings – Costa, Fabregas and Luis – to the camp and went on to register two more wins (1-2 and 1-3) against Ljubljana and Vitesse, a club Chelsea works very, very closely with. Pre-season form can be misleading as seen in the case of Marko Marin and Kevin de Bruyne in the recent past, but these games can be useful to gauge whether plans are moving in the right direction or not. Chelsea next play Werder Bremen in Germany, but before that here’s what we have learnt about the new signings thus far.

Diego Costa Begins With A Bang

High-profile centre-forward signings by Chelsea make everyone sit up and observe more closely than what they’d have done in any other case. In the Roman Abramovich era, apart from Didier Drogba, Chelsea have failed to get the best out of their superstar strikers, and have seen big names such as Andriy Shevchenko and Fernando Torres abysmally fail, so much to that Stamford Bridge has acquired a reputation of being a graveyard for elite strikers in the game.

So when Chelsea signed Diego Costa from Atletico Madrid in the summer, quite a few eyebrows were raised. This time, however, things appear to be different. To start with, Costa isn’t the owner’s vanity signing, as this time Chelsea have actually brought in a player, who was long coveted by the manager himself because the player’s game is tailor-made for the tactics Mourinho wishes to deploy. Following Chelsea’s 1-3 win over Vitesse on Wednesday, wherein Costa did brilliantly to assist first Salah and then Matic after he had scored a fantastic goal on debut against Ljubljana, the manager said, “He is a fantasticplayer.Ai??Technically he is very, very good. Thatai??i??s why, lots of the players, they are so happy and so surprised, because his quality is even higher than what they expect.Ai??He is so strong physically and he gives so much effort during matches. When somebody sees him play, the first thing that gets into their eyes is exactly that, the capacity to work hard for theAi??team, and to be so powerful and so strong physically.“

The jury is still out on Costa and having let Lukaku leave, Chelsea have firmly put all their faith on the former Atletico man. Signs so far have been good, as the striker has shown Chelsea what they have been missing all these years – his finishing, movement, ability to hold the ball, involve team mates have made the fans hopeful again.

Fabregas Rightly (And Adeptly) Partners Nemanja Matic In Midfield

At the end of last season, Chelsea had identified three major problem areas in the squad – centre-forward, left-back and central midfield. On too many occasions last season, they failed to break down lesser teams that were disciplined enough to put men behind the ball and close down Chelsea. They game-plan was simple – deny Eden Hazard any space, shut-down Chelsea. The team, more so the manager, needed someone who could play in central midfield alongside Matic, dictate the tempo of the game by his quick, incisive passing and orchestrate their attacks. And in Cesc Fabregas, Chelsea appear to have found their man.

When Fabregas was put on the market for A?27m, they saw the former Arsenal captain whose footballing brain worked faster than most, whose awareness was better than most and who successfully ran the midfield with aplomb and not the Barcelona player who was crucified for his lack of positional discipline or his inclination towards more-than-desired movement that saw him leave space behind him to join attacks and thereby leaving possession-based approach of Barcelona in jeopardy; as a result he was played further up-field, even as a false 9, to get the best out of the player, without compromising the game of those around him. In all honesty, although Cesc came through the Barcelona system till the age of 16, which sowed the seeds for his overall technical finesse, it was actually Arsene Wenger and the Premier League that truly made him the player he is today. As a result, he was always more suited for the high-tempo English game that unleashed his full potential than the highly sophisticated and demanding Barcelona system.

So far, Fabregas has started alongside Nemanja Matic in the double pivot and has even been deployed in a three-man midfield (4-3-3) with Marko van Ginkel further forward and Matic behind them as a lone holding player. His overall ball movement and awareness has been good thus far and as is expected from everyone on Mourinho’s team, he has contributed defensively as well, although not to great effect but the ability of Matic can cover for his slight weakness here. His pass led to Costa’s first goal and in the next game, he himself got on the scoresheet with an immaculately taken free-kick.

For the Chelsea fans, it must be strange seeing their former nemesis dress in blue, but as was the case with Ashley Cole, if Fabregas can consistently do what he’s brought in for, there’s no reason why he can’t carve out a memorable career at Stamford Bridge.

Filipe Luis Resumes From Where He Left Of At Atletico Madrid

Last season, first because of Ashley Cole’s injury and then because of his inconsistency, Jose Mourinho deployed right-back Cesar Azpilicueta on the left and the Spaniard didn’t disappoint at all. He was an epitome of consistency and delivered solid performances week in, week out. However, playing out of position, he wasn’t able to have the kind of impact in the final third that he usually has while playing on the right. Ivanovic remained a highly dangerous goal-threat at set-pieces and solid at the back, but far too often opponents were happy letting him have the ball on the right and ping random balls into the box. His delivery was often very poor and as a result many attacks failed to come to fruition.

With Cole set to depart, a left-back who could allow Azpilicueta move back to the right, who was not only solid at the back but could also link-up well with Eden Hazard and play a role in Chelsea’s attacks was the need of the hour. Over the past year, Chelsea had been heavily linked to highly-rated Southampton left-back Luke Shaw, who at 18 had firmly established himself as one of the best young left-backs in the world; furthermore, he was a self-confessed Chelsea fan. However, Chelsea decided against paying a fee ofAi??A?30m and wages ofAi??A?100,000/week for Shaw (who later signed on for Manchester United) and and the end of last season earmarked the 28-year old Atletico left-back Filipe Luis to fulfill their needs. Luis has a buy-out cause of A?20m, but Chelsea negotiated a fee aroundAi??A?16m for the Brazilian.

Filipe Luis is arguably one of the most complete left-backs in the game today. He has a remarkable engine and is influential at both ends of the pitch. Last season, he averaged 4.1 tackles per game and was dispossessed merely 27 times in 32 starts for Atletico. HeAi??has so far played twice for the Blues and has been expectedly solid thus far. He looked composed on the ball on both occasions and displayed an impressive passing range. More importantly, Terry and Luis seemed to be on one page whenever they were on the pitch together and his early understanding with the Chelsea captain augers well for the club.Ai??Ai??He may have come with the least fanfare, but can easily become one of the better buys for the club in the last decade or so. And, anyone concerned about his age, should look no further than Zola, Makalele and Ballack, who were all around 30 when they signed for the Blues and nobody seems to be complaining about them today.

Categories: Chelsea FC, Features
Tags: cech Chelsea FC Costa Fabregas Luis

Chelsea have won four out of five pre-season games thus far. Here’s a look at how things have shaped up for new signings Diego Costa, Cesc Fabregas and Filipe Luis.

Diego Costa Begins With A Bang

Fabregas Rightly (And Adeptly) Partners Nemanja Matic In Midfield

Filipe Luis Resumes From Where He Left Of At Atletico Madrid

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