On July twentieth 2023 Chelsea confronted Wrexham of their first pre-season sport within the USA and gained that sport 5-0.
Nearly precisely a 12 months later it was a case of deja vu as The Blues confronted Wrexham once more within the USA however this time round, they have been truly fortunate to not be on the improper facet of defeat. Enzo Maresca was very near shedding 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 greater than they have been this time final 12 months and so they had one other 12 months of expertise with the identical supervisor and mainly the identical squad. I knew they have 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 should always by no means over react to pre-season pleasant video games, particularly the very first sport.
In fact, all of us need to see positives and progress because the video games go on and once more after all, 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 all the time going to be fatigue, all the time going to be sloppy passes, all the time going to be rustiness, and all the time 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 virtually shedding the sport.
After Chelsea scored the primary aim they dominated and used the ball effectively. 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 all the time, the wholesale modifications at half time then put us again to sq. one and likewise with much less high quality on the pitch. Wrexham started to come back out the blocks a bit extra and provided extra of a menace. They obtained their objectives from battling and being good and displaying high quality within the closing third. Chelsea seemed lackluster by way of 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 aim (11) than Wrexham had (6). But Wrexham have been extra medical and higher with their efforts on aim, having 1 extra on the right track (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 after all, none of that issues until you might have the top product to get the scoreline optimistic, which is all the time crucial stat in soccer.
We’ve to do not forget that we now have many key gamers to nonetheless come again in as effectively, so we are going to see extra enhancements as we go on. Ultimately, we did effectively to get the draw right here, think about the meltdown if we misplaced!?
It was a superb little run round to stretch the legs and begin to put in place how they need to play for the remainder of the season.
There was negatives in addition to positives, and I’m positive that Maresca may have lots to remove and work on because of this.
“I’m very blissful in regards to the efficiency typically,” Maresca mentioned after the sport. “We began simply two weeks in the past, it’s necessary that us because the employees can begin to see the id of the group. Tonight it was fairly clear.
“For positive we’re going to add extra options.”
By the way, I discovered that remark fairly fascinating. Is he saying they’re in search of options within the switch market or inside the squad? Both manner, he doesn’t seem absolutely 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.
