CHAOS over CONTROL? : 3 Tactics Learned Chelsea v Brighton

Chelsea beat Brighton 4-3 in a high-scoring affair on Xabi Alonso’s Premier League Stamford Bridge debut. There are lots of details we learnt in the win, both good and bad from a Chelsea perspective. I will be going in depth into some of them here.

Alonso hasn’t yet set up his expansive style of play, and is Xabi going direct to them to bypass the build-up for now?

Chelsea played in their usual 3-2-5 on the ball and 5-2-3/4-4-2 shape off the ball. This was different to the straight 5-2-3 against Fulham. Neto’s presence was key to this. Neto started defending in the 5, but when Brighton’s left back got more space to help create overloads on the left. Xabi had to make Neto stay closer to him.

But Chelsea did not once, from my eye test, from the stats too, play short from Goal kicks. Martinez on his Chelsea debut seemed instructed to play long. Plus Chelsea’s possession numbers were as low as it has ever been at Stamford Bridge since the data started being aggregated. But Why?

There can be 2 reasons for this: no 1, Brighton boasts one of the best presses in the Premier League. They use an aggressive man-to-man press, and without Caicedo, even though Lavia is there, Chelsea did not possess the midfield to play out comfortably. At least Chelsea did attempt to play out against Fulham. It was a Gusto-Lavia midfield and it looked more optimised to defend in a block as opposed to playing expansively. Lavia still did his thing on the ball when he got the ball and beat the press when he could, but it wasn’t set up to play out of it.

2ndly, bypassing the Brighton press meant that the ball went directly to the front 3. Remember how I analysed how Xabi is not afraid to let his team just go long and direct to the front 3 and chances would come from it? Yeah, it happened again, and the ability of JP and Rogers especially to compete in duels and then lay it off for themselves in the front 3, or 4 with Neto to then create chances was a thing of joy. I hadn’t felt Chelsea were this threatening even from direct balls as much as this in a long time. This will be a weapon in big games if Chelsea just want to bypass the press and play to JP; JP will fight for it and possesses excellent touch and control and hold-up play to make it stick.

So Chelsea did that against Brighton so much that it had to be the plan.

Setpieces were key for Chelsea: corners, throw-ins

Chelsea scored from 3 setpieces. McPhee is already earning his money with Chelsea being threatening from all types of setpieces. It may be too early to know for sure if the throw-ins, particularly, were totally intentional, but let's quickly look into them.

The first throw-in was relatively quick, wont say it was totally quick, but it was a throw from Hato into JP. Rogers is close to him to feed off his lay-off. Rogers is immediately in a 1v1, and he beats his man and wonderfully glances into the box to see Neto and slides a lovely cutback.

Players that actually scan the box to see who to pass to >>>>.

The 2nd throw-in was almost similar. Normally teams tend to play it safe from throw-ins like that, but Chelsea were looking to create transition opportunities with JPs layoffs. This time it was to Palmer. Palmer then drove with the ball, lovely shrug to move the defender away and placed it in the bottom corner KDB style.

Lavia also found himself in the same spot as he did against Fulham, and this time he scored. So Chelsea are really working on setpieces, and it is showing from an attacking point of view.

Chelsea still struggling from setpieces?

On the flip side. Chelsea still showed issues defensively from Setpieces. Chelsea conceded 0.74xGA from Brighton’s setpieces. It meant that Chelsea’s open play defending was good enough, but it also showed the susceptibility of defending from those setpieces and even in open play crosses. Chelsea looked to give Brighton too much space to play those crosses into the box and didn’t look set enough to defend those crosses, and some led to dangerous situations.

Lets see this one. A Freekick, Lavia misses his man. Is he trying to play an offside trap?

Brighton get a free header in the box, and that’s a big chance.

Brighton’s last goal was from a throw-in. Brighton win the first header; Hato managed to get a head to it, but no one is following up. Rogers loses his man in Grob and Chelsea concede.

Chelsea’s other 2 goals conceded was as a result of setpieces too. Palmer lost Grob for his deflected shot off JP for a goal with a huge stroke of luck

And Neto dove into the challenge for Brighton’s first goal from a quick throw-in, which led to Martinez having to stop that, but it was deflected into the path of Yalcouye and Chelsea conceded.

Chelsea, in open play, still gave Brighton lots of space to cross at times. Chelsea’s off-ball shape shuttled between a 4-4-2 and a 5-3-2 shape. But ultimately, Chelsea’s wingbacks and outside CBs didn’t do enough to stop crosses from coming in. The shape wasn’t compact, and even though the bulk of xGA came from set pieces, Xabi will do well to make his team compact. It’s a process, and Xabi’s attention to details and also, especially off the ball, I'm sure he will be on this.