There are few sweeter feelings than the first Premier League game of the season at Stamford Bridge. Unfortunately, I missed the first two due to being double booked, which meant that it wasn’t until yesterday I made my long-awaited return.
But my, what a return it was.
Many things changed over the summer. There was a new man in the Chelsea hot seat in Xabi Alonso, a plethora of new signings across the pitch including Morgan Rogers, and crucially I moved from South-West to South-East London.
Over the last five or so years, I’ve got rather used to the multitude of transport options I had available to me to get to the game. Be it a trip on the bus, the underground, the overground and even a walk along the river if I fancied it. All four options are still available to me, but the caveat is they’ll all take a bit longer. Perhaps most exciting is the opportunity I now have to get the Uber Boat all the way from Greenwich to Imperial Wharf. With the District line being inexplicably down yesterday, I had no choice but to take 3 different overground trains, a tad annoying.
It’s been three long weekends without the Premier League. It’s always a bit frustrating at this time in the year. We get a small preview of the season, then it’s straight into international football. I’m a big fan of the new format, combining two international breaks into one. Yes, it’s an extra slightly painstaking weekend of having to pretend to care about the Nations League, but it does mean there’s only one international break between now and March. Trust me, it’s worth it.
As usual, this felt like an international break that most Chelsea fans were ready for. What had started as a very exciting beginning to the season with wins over Fulham and Brighton had been somewhat soured by a loss to Arsenal, a draw to Hull City and a capitulation against Brentford.
Anyway, back to the usual routine. With the sun shining out across London, it was pretty hard not to feel good going into the game. And, as with any 3pm, where else to go but the Waterside at Imperial Wharf for a few debriefs on what we’d seen this season so far and what to expect going into the game ahead. My journey to the pub was brightened by news that none other than Cole Palmer had signed an extension onto his current deal. I wasn’t overly concerned about the seven remaining years he had on it anyway, but still nice I guess.
My only slight worry going into the game was that Bournemouth had been winless in the league so far this season, but I refused to believe today would be the day that sod’s law came into effect. I boldly went for 4-1 in my pre-game prediction, Dad went with 3-1 and Alfie 2-1. Nice to see their faith in our defence to keep a clean sheet. It feels like it’s been quite a while since we took a team apart at home, but I couldn’t help but feel pretty confident about my prediction.
Whilst I have been to Stamford Bridge already this season for our cup-tie against Leeds, it was hard not to be pretty excited seeing the ground come into view again for the first time. Owing to some manoeuvring of tickets pre-season, we now have three seats in a row in the Shed lower, which is pretty fantastic, and I absolutely devoured a beef and mince pie as ‘Blue is the Colour’ rang around the ground pre-game.
Chelsea have made a habit of starting fast this season, with five of our six games presenting goals in the opening 10 minutes, but even I couldn’t have possibly predicted we’d be two up after just three minutes. I’ve never seen anything like it. Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen team was known for its ability to get late equalisers and winners out of nothing, but I can’t tell you how fun it is to get a fast start like we’ve been doing recently. It really sucks the air out of the opponent early doors.
In all seriousness, this start was probably a little too quick for my liking. I was barely halfway through the aforementioned beef and onion pie when Henderson scored, wolfing it down in excitement left me with a burned tongue.
I can remember exactly where I was when Morgan Rogers was suddenly confirmed to be heading to Chelsea, playing pool on a Saturday afternoon. I’ve admired him as a player, although admittedly I did have some concerns about the size of the price tag. I always enjoyed watching him at Aston Villa, but so far he looks more than a match for the money paid for him. I can’t express just how much pleasure it gives me to watch a player of his physical prowess be so technically good. He was fabulous once again yesterday.
I was perhaps overconfident in ruling it ‘game over’ in the third minute, but my, it did put us in a commanding position. It’s never going to be possible to keep up that pace and momentum across the whole half, and we did lose control of the game in places, with Martinez standing strong to keep our two-goal lead. If you’d offered me 2-0 at half-time pre-game, I’d have taken it. One thing I certainly haven’t missed about Stamford Bridge is their selection of half-time beverages. The pint of Madri I swiftly dispatched did little to change my mind.
Back to fast starts, within a minute of the second half beginning, it was 3-0. João Pedro with a delightful finish.
Of course, things were going a little too well and it was only natural we’d concede. It was a quite calamitous and fortuitous finish all things considered. I don’t think Evanilson knew a huge amount about the clearance he blocked, but the end result was the same. 22 games without a clean sheet in the Premier League is not a good look, no matter how you look at it. I’ve seen a huge change in how we move the ball and present in the final third. What I need and expect Xabi Alonso to do in the coming months is put in place a similar transformational effect on the back line.
Thankfully, João Pedro’s second put an end to any chance of a Bournemouth comeback. I actually don’t think he had his best game in terms of how involved he was in the overall play, but it’s a testament to just how good he has become that he was able to leave such a lasting impact on the match.
I haven’t always been the biggest fan of Jordan Henderson, but I was fully supportive of the move for him this summer. I didn’t expect him to have to play a huge amount, but the deadline-day sale of Enzo Fernández means he may play a bigger role than expected. Either way, his experience and mentality are going to prove invaluable. Wow, did he score two absolute screamers yesterday. The opener was awesome, but the free-kick was just superb. I think my only gripe with yesterday’s game is the fact that Xabi Alonso didn’t sub him off so he could get a standing ovation from the Stamford Bridge faithful, but you can’t have everything.
5-1. A demolition. What 3pms are made of.
Reflecting on the game afterwards in the pub, it really was difficult to see how it could’ve gone much better. Moisés Caicedo’s return to the team truly did level up every single player on the pitch. Playing him in midfield is like getting two players for the price of one. Whilst it’s not been the perfect start to the season, watching Manchester United face off against Tottenham Hotspur in the 5:30pm kick-off made me feel so grateful for Xabi Alonso and our players. Seriously, it felt exactly like I was watching 12th vs 18th place.
Finally, I know every season I try and start this blog up again and then fail miserably, so I’m not going to commit to anything just yet. But I do hope I can write more on here. I enjoy it and I know it’s good for my brain. I’ll be back for Chelsea against Spurs in a couple of weeks.
