One consistent thing in the footballing world for the past fortnights has been the controversial issue of Chelsea owner (Roman Abramovich) in relation to the ongoing war in Europe between Russia and Ukraine.
In recent days, amidst the decision of the UK government to sanction sole owner of Chelsea Roman Abramovich, the club has remained in deep troubled waters leading to a lot of noise away from the pitch with rumors of potential buyers and a ban on transactions of all sorts (Renewal of contracts and sponsorships).
With all these distractions, Chelsea took on bottom-placed Norwich with the team having to shut out noise from the outside world and concentrate on the task at hand with the race for the top four heating up and rivals closing in on Chelsea.
The reverse fixture of this particular game ended 7-0 at the bridge with Mount recording his first career hat-trick.
Here, are five lessons learnt from Carrow road;
Chelsea start bright
In recent games, Chelsea have been guilty of starting games rather sluggishly but last night saw a big change to what was becoming a rather bad practice.
Last night, Chelsea came out of the blocks all guns-blazing and rattled the Norwich team led by Dean Smith. The first 15 minutes saw the blues go 2 goals up with Chalobah netting his fourth goal this season while Mount continued his good form against Norwich scoring his fourth goal against them this season.
Barring indecisiveness in the final third in the first half of the match against Norwich, Chelsea could have scored 4 goals and put the game to rest with 45 more minutes still to come. First half curse broken!
Mount relishing playmaker role
Prior to the game, Norwich fans and players alike would have had just one wish, and that was that Mount had an unusual bad day at the office but that turned to be the complete opposite as Mason Mount acted as the chief tormentor of the Canaries.
In the first half, Mount started slightly deeper to play as the number “10” behind double strike-partner, Timo Werner and Kai Harvertz.
Playing in a rather deeper role than usual, Mount came into full flight with the freedom afforded him to roam and create overloads bringing the best out of the England international.
In the first half of the game, Mount created multiple chances with his brilliant movement and positioning often making him a free man in midfield thereby affording him time and space to create havoc.
Mount has always mentioned his desire to play in midfield and proved a valid point as to why Tuchel needs to reconsider his position in games to come. Mount’s celebration of the goal; (kissing the club’s badge) showed how much joy he had after a brilliant individual game. Money Mase on the money!
Lukaku is further down the pecking order
After the team news rolled in, one name stood out amidst the substitutes, Romelu Bolingoli Lukaku. The record signing is yet to start a premier league match since his very poor showing against Crystal Palace. Against Norwich, Tuchel opted to go for the attacking duo of Werner and Kai up top leaving Lukaku on the bench.
Despite the rather average performance by German attacker Timo Werner, Tuchel decided against bringing on Lukaku until the 85th minute with the game finely balanced at 2-1 in favor of Chelsea before Kai added a third to kill the game off.
Lukaku seems far off from regaining his number 9 starters shirt with Kai’s present form but this is football, anything can happen!
Complacency still not evident
Of the many positives on show last night, one negative stain on the performance was the complacency showed in the second half. Before the end of the first half, right in the box with Norwich pressing for a goal to liven things up, Thiago and Mendy played risky passes to each other before Thiago nearly lost the ball with a rather unusual misplaced pass in a dangerous area close to the box.
Evidence of complacency has been noticed in games where Chelsea have been so dominant before letting their guard down. Instances of complacency can be traced back to matches against West Ham, Burnley(Home fixture) Zenit in the champions league also.
Being complacent in the most ruthless of leagues is sure to see Chelsea drop more unwanted points if this problem persists. Work is still to be done!
Set-piece remains a major strength
This season in the premier league, Chelsea has the most goals from defenders and most of those have been from set-pieces. Chelsea have been a consistent threat from set-pieces all season with players like Chalobah and Silva both grabbing 3 goals apiece from set-plays and Rudiger also bagging 2 goals from such avenue.
The tactic of attacking the front post when delivering an in-swinging corner more often than not gives room to more movement by ensuring the first defender gets dragged out of position as a result of the player attacking the front post. Werner benefitted from this tactic against Zenit in the Champions League while Chalobah and Rudiger have also been beneficiaries of the same tactic. There is certain to be more set-piece goals.
Man of the match: Mount 9/10
