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The subtext of Chelsea’s £ 220 million summer spending spree is Frank Lampard’s judgment that many of his current squad weren’t at the required level.
Lampard will be pleased that the Blues began their long-awaited Premier League campaign with a 3-1 win at Brighton, but if anything, the players asked to respond to newcomers only reinforced the vision of His trainer.
Ruben Loftus-Cheek got an unexpected shot at a 10th spot when Chelsea switched to 4-2-3-1, a line-up change expected to accommodate Kai Havertz on his debut following a £ 71 million move from Bayer Leverkusen. .
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This was a golden opportunity for Loftus-Cheek, in his third start since blocking, to show that he can work his way into Lampard’s thinking as the Blues boss shuffles his pack to identify what he hopes will be a winning hand this time. season.
Instead, he worked on possession far too often and blew a good counter to free Timo Werner in what would have been a clear opportunity to double Chelsea’s lead shortly before the break.
Loftus-Cheek has missed a year of soccer with a serious Achilles tendon injury, so he should have more leeway than most, but the message in talking about his situation will have resonated with others. Players waiting behind the scenes are here to improve the team.
“Ruben had been out for a long time and even his return to the game was quite broken by blocking and restarting when he was about to play a few games,” Lampard said.
“We certainly have to give Rubén a little time on those fronts. It’s a position that Rubén can play for us. We have injuries in the front areas in terms of [Hakim] Ziyech, [Christian] Pulisic.
“There are players who will come back and give me a lot of options, so it was interesting for me to see him in that position. He can certainly give us an option.”
The visitors were already ahead thanks to an earlier example of Werner’s breakneck speed. Steven Alzate gave Jorginho possession and although the Italian overcame his pass, Werner regained the ground in the blink of an eye, trapping Brighton goalkeeper Mat Ryan, who knocked the German international down in the penalty area.
Jorginho scored from the spot, extending his 100 percent penalty hit rate for the Blues to eight attempts, but Brighton had a bit of bad luck falling behind in the game’s balance.
Tariq Lamptey was a constant threat from the right-back, as Marcos Alonso underscored the importance of Chelsea signing another left-back in Leicester City’s Ben Chilwell.
Andreas Christensen and Kurt Zouma were unconvincing as a center-back pair, and both apparently required Thiago Silva to bring some calm to the heart of the Chelsea defense.
Brighton continued to advance, but found itself indebted to another error by Kepa Arrizabalaga to equalize. The Spaniard was slow to get to his left to avoid Leandro Trossard’s shot in the 54th minute, adding another entry to Kepa’s extensive list of moments titled: “Not a howler, but not good enough for the world’s most expensive goalkeeper. world”.
Edouard Mendy’s imminent arrival from Rennes for £ 20m is casting a shadow over Kepa and his place on the team.
Chelsea were left without Chilwell, Ziyech, Pulisic and Silva on Monday, all of whom seem more confident starters simply because of what happened in their absence, even allowing for a shorter preseason and a clear lack of physical conditioning.
There was, at least, no time for panic to set in after Trossard’s goal, as exactly 100 seconds later, Reece James hit the ball past Ryan from 25 yards with a fierce punch that reverberated around the nearly empty Amex Stadium.
Zouma extended Chelsea’s lead 10 minutes later with a deflected shot from James’ corner and the Blues watched the game quite comfortably, perhaps underscoring why Brighton needs to sign a forward before the transfer window closes next. month.
Chelsea will have to improve when they host champion Liverpool on Sunday afternoon and they will surely look to their big acquisitions to help do that. Chilwell has a chance of being fit, as does Pulisic, but while Werner was exciting and incisive throughout, Havertz was more peripheral.
The two have had vastly contrasting preseason with Werner avoiding Red Bull Leipzig’s Champions League knockout campaign last season to start immediately in England, while Havertz has had a much shorter period of time to work on after joining with. Germany in the first part of the recent international. break.
However, there will be a smaller margin of error against Jurgen Klopp’s team next weekend and Lampard would be right to expect more when the toughest tests begin.
“We will be better [on Sunday]”, said.” This is our first game and under the circumstances we have been together as a group for four days. We have two guys debuting there tonight.
“We showed a lot of good things. It wasn’t where we wanted to be and we will improve for Liverpool as well. The first game of the season is definitely about getting the win when you get to a place like Brighton and we did a lot of good things to get it.
“We have had many quarantines at the club, we have had many players who left with international matches and were not in top form. That’s right.”
