On July twentieth 2023 Chelsea confronted Wrexham of their first pre-season sport within the USA and gained that sport 5-0.
Virtually precisely a yr later it was a case of deja vu as The Blues confronted Wrexham once more within the USA however this time round, they had been really fortunate to not be on the flawed aspect of defeat. Enzo Maresca was very near dropping his very first sport in cost if it wasn’t for an amazing late save from Lucas Bergstrom, and a tidy end from Lesley Ugochukwu.
Wrexham are a division increased than they had been this time final yr and so they had one other yr of expertise with the identical supervisor and mainly the identical squad. I knew they had been going to trigger us issues, I knew they might be well-organised, and I knew they might be sitting off in a deep block permitting Chelsea to maintain the ball in deep areas. This may be robust to interrupt down regardless of the degree is you’re dealing with.
What I additionally know is that we must always by no means over react to pre-season pleasant video games, particularly the very first sport.
In fact, all of us wish to see positives and progress because the video games go on and once more in fact, it’s nice if we are able to get some wins on the board too for momentum. All of that’s completely necessary. However so is the truth that we shouldn’t over react to something. There was at all times going to be fatigue, at all times going to be sloppy passes, at all times going to be rustiness, and at all times going to be time wanted for Maresca to implement his system.
There was many positives to remove from this sport regardless of conceding two and nearly dropping the sport.
After Chelsea scored the primary purpose they dominated and used the ball nicely. After beginning off very sluggish and cautious in possession, Chelsea quickly began shifting it faster with one-touch passing and being progressive with actions. This was our greatest spell of the sport from then till half time.
As at all times, the wholesale modifications at half time then put us again to sq. one and in addition with much less high quality on the pitch. Wrexham started to come back out the blocks a bit extra and supplied extra of a risk. They received their targets from battling and being good and displaying high quality within the last third. Chelsea appeared lackluster by many of the second half however nonetheless had respectable spells of possession too.
Chelsea bossed it with 75% possession and had 5 extra makes an attempt on purpose (11) than Wrexham had (6). But Wrexham had been extra medical and higher with their efforts on purpose, having 1 extra on course (4) than Chelsea did (3).
Chelsea made 767 passes in comparison with Wrexham’s 254, and so they additionally had a 91% passing accuracy in comparison with Wrexham’s 73%. However in fact, none of that issues until you may have the top product to get the scoreline constructive, which is at all times a very powerful stat in soccer.
We’ve to do not forget that we have now many key gamers to nonetheless come again in as nicely, so we are going to see extra enhancements as we go on. In the long run, we did nicely to get the draw right here, think about the meltdown if we misplaced!?
It was a very good little run round to stretch the legs and begin to put in place how they wish to play for the remainder of the season.
There was negatives in addition to positives, and I’m certain that Maresca may have quite a bit to remove and work on because of this.
“I’m very comfortable concerning the efficiency typically,” Maresca stated after the sport. “We began simply two weeks in the past, it’s necessary that us because the employees can begin to see the identification of the crew. Tonight it was fairly clear.
“For certain we’re going to add extra options.”
By the way, I discovered that remark fairly fascinating. Is he saying they’re searching for options within the switch market or inside the squad? Both approach, he doesn’t seem totally content material with what he has seen.
We transfer on to our subsequent sport now in opposition to Celtic on Saturday evening at 9pm UK time with some positives to take and a pair good particular person performances because the rust continues to fall off.
