Chelsea F.C. kicked off the season with a promising 3-0 victory away at Huddersfield. Thanks to Kante who teamed up well with Jorginho and tackled some of the unsettled elements of Chelseas Sarriball in the Community Shield defeat against Manchester City. The first away performance of the Blues gives hints that Sarriball and 4-3-3 are effectively making their way in Chelseas squad inducing them to play more and more offensively.
Huddersfields low block defence
Huddersfield played with low block 5-3-2 in their defensive phases while only occasionally extending their press in the first quarter of the game. Their front two kept Jorginho double marked almost blocking him to dictate the game or to fill the hole in Chelseas passing structures further up the pitch. This often gave the home team numerical superiority over Chelsea in the central regions.
However, due to the low block defence, the home team couldnt do much with the ball in their attacking third. Their front-two almost always got outnumbered by Chelseas back-four including the low-staying fullbacks, or by Chelseas back-two and Jorginho during transitions, eventually losing possession to the away team.
Chelsea more attentive to spaces
Chelsea is still to fully adapt to Sarrismo the way Sarri wants, but they are becoming more offensive than before. Thats enabling the Blues to be more attentive to open spaces and even pockets of spaces to get their possession game up and forward. Possession for the sake of attack.
Chelsea was attentive to the whole open planes, vertically and horizontally against Huddersfield. In an instance during the third quarter, Chelsea brilliantly made it from the right end of the pitch to the left via short passes within the narrow yet open plane between Huddersfields lines.
The wingers were also equally aware of the spaces as well. Due to Chelseas intense passing and the home team having to double mark Jorginho backed with the defensive cover by their midfielders, the play got compressed for a good part of each build-up phase by Chelsea. This opened up at least one of Chelseas wings by the end of these phases. While Chelseas play also concentrated at the right flank, Willian was found mostly the one with an open left flank ahead mainly during transitions.
Pedro brilliantly used his body position, dribbling and passing in some
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