Oh yeah, we’re back.
I really enjoyed the summer break. Despite a very poor British Summer weather wise, we did still get a scintillating series of Ashes Cricket (let’s ignore the fact the weather ruined the overall result) and it’s been nice to have a little bit of time away from watching Chelsea. That being said, the minute my day began, there was only one thought on my mind. Football.
I don’t really need to emphasise once again just how bad we were last season, but I will again once more. We were rubbish. Going into this season one thing was near enough certain, we couldn’t possibly be that bad again.
Waking up, it was a relief to see that the rain appeared to have neglected South-West London for one of the first times this month. After an unhealthy amount of coffee, it was finally time to put on my walking boots and begin the hike over to Stamford Bridge. As ever, being the first game of the season, the Waterside pub of Imperial Wharf proved to be the perfect watering hole for the day ahead.
Discussion varied wildly from minute to minute. Ranging from Summer Stories, poor Fantasy Football picks and discussion on the weekend’s football. All the while, Tottenham delightfully fell victim once again to a potent Brentford side. My main talking point from the whole affair was the pub’s wild decision to remove the children’s sausage and chips from their Sunday menu. What had been a previous staple of any Sunday afternoon kick off was now gone. Safe to say, I wasn’t happy.
It felt pretty nice to be back in my usual standing spot just to the left of the goal. A number of people had been displaced further down the row to make way for new Premier League camera regulations but thankfully we weren’t one of them. As the line-up was read out I couldn’t help but think just how different our team was to the one which had started the opening day of the season last year. Whilst last summer’s window was pretty much as bad as can be, I’ve been seriously impressed by the clear-out we’ve seen in the last few months.
Nothing says the Premier League is back to me quite like looking out into the stadium, seeing the sun shining and an array of blue and white t-shirts all over the place. The pitch, having gone through a few years of looking worse for wear in places, looked as crisp as can be and a huge new “Chelsea Football Club” sign adorned the east stand.
Stamford Bridge was loud yesterday. The performance in the first twenty or so minutes certainly wasn’t however and we struggled to handle the pace of the game early on as a side with little experience playing together really went through the motions. As far as baptisms of fire in football go, there can be few worse than having to face Mohammed Salah, the most prolific player the Premier League has seen in the last decade.
That was the fate bestowed to both Levi Colwill and Axel Disasi and it resulted in an early Luis Díaz goal for Liverpool. Business as usual you might think? Especially when Salah doubled the lead minutes later. Oh god I thought, we really are going to have to sit through this again. Thankfully VAR had other ideas and deficit was halved once more.
From that point, we really grew into the game and after 37 minutes it was Axel Disasi who levelled the scores. I don’t know why, but for some reason centre backs for us have this weird habit of almost always scoring in their early games. Koulibaly and Fofana did it last season and it was Disasi’s turn yesterday. No pressure next week Levi…
Minutes later, it was ecstasy at the Bridge as a quite brilliant Enzo Fernández ball found Ben Chilwell on the edge of the box. He promptly rounded Alisson and turned the game on it’s head. It’s fair to say the scenes were pretty jubilant at this point in time but they didn’t last long. As like earlier in the game, VAR’s logo appeared on the TV screens and once the Liverpool player’s began to move the ball back to their own goal, we knew it was getting ruled out. Pity.
Going into half time it was hard to be too downbeat about the ruled out goal simply because of just how good we’d looked that half. It’s been a little while since I’ve gone in at half time genuinely excited and knowing there’s actually a chance we might win a game. That mood seemed to be shared by all in the concourse. For once, there were obvious patterns of play emerging and we cut through Liverpool on multiple occasions.
The second half was more of the same and the good performance continued. Ultimately substitutions began to push the game more in Liverpool’s flavour and produced a tense last twenty minutes or so. Having conceded 96th and 97th minute goals to Tottenham and Manchester United last season, it’s fair to say the mood wasn’t relaxed at all in the ground. Robert Sánchez, despite some pretty dodgy distribution at one point, had a solid game. He plucked the ball out of the air late on from an Andy Robertson corner in a display of aerial dominance that has been sorely missed since Édouard Mendy lost his starting spot to Kepa Arrizabalaga last season.
There are honestly too many shout-outs to give from yesterday’s performance. In his first game as captain, Reece James was world class. No injury concerns with his substitution but it’s great to know Malo Gusto can chip in when needed there. Reece just has that “x-factor” that I’ve seen from few others.
Colwill and Disasi were outstanding and grew very quickly into the game after a tough opening spell. If that’s the improvement we see in just a game, I can’t wait to see how things progress over the season. Nicolas Jackson was dynamic up top, excited to see more of him.
My men of the match however have to be Conor Gallagher and Enzo Fernández. Gallagher’s shift in the second half was second to none and he made multiple key interceptions and tackles. Enzo, playing slightly further forward than he was often found last season was completely unplayable. Every time he got the ball it prompted “oohs and ahs” from the crowd. I’m very excited to see Enzo and a certain Ecuadorian play together next Sunday.
I still feel like something isn’t quite working with Raheem Sterling, but you certainly couldn’t fault his work rate yesterday. I feel he’s probably best deployed on the left but the difference between him and Mudryk was night and day when the Ukrainian came on.
All in all, I think a draw was just about a fair result when you consider the two disallowed goals and possible Liverpool penalty appeal. It fills me with a huge amount of excitement for the season ahead. Some of those Liverpool players have played under Jürgen Klopp for six years now. On the other hand, our players have had two months with Poch so I’m very excited to see how we look in six months time. For the first time writing one of these blogs, I actually can’t wait for our next game on Sunday.
Post-game, being the first match of the season was outrageous as ever. A couple of drinks in the Sixes pub quickly turned into some fairly intense batting practice in one of their cages. No surprise who the winner was with inner-Steve Smith coming out. Special mention must be given to Chris Gagg however who at one point had impressive batting figures of 6-5. I will say that I’m very glad I strategically used a day of annual leave today.
Up next it’s the worst ground in the league: The London Stadium and West Ham United. Bring it on.
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