In this series we take a look at three points of interest across the Club
Blues Deliver on the Global Stage
Two Chelsea youngsters continued their great early season form in their respective age group’s final international games.
Ryan Kavuma-McQueen scored four goals (and got an assist) for England’s U17s in a crazy 7-5 win against Germany.
Shim Mheuka continued his hot streak with two more goals against the Netherlands for England U19’s.
The pair of them now have 18 goals and assists between them in only 7 games this season.
Emenalo, Walsh and Ezenwata were all involved in England U18’s 3-2 win over Canada, while Acheampong and Gittens starred in a 2-0 win over Kazakhstan for the U21s.
Reece James played just over an hour for the senior team, keeping a clean sheet against Serbia, as did Cucurella against Turkey. Neto played most of the game in a 3-2 win over Hungary, while Gusto got around half an hour for France v Iceland.
Caicedo got sent off against Argentina but they hung on for a 1-0 win. Elsewhere in South America our Brazilian trio played a part in a 1-0 loss to Bolivia.
Chelsea Women Roll On (Just)….
Sonia Bompastor’s side may have won 3-1 but it could, and maybe should, have been a different story. The first half was mostly Villa, as shown below. They posted eight shots to Chelsea’s two, with three and one on target respectively.
Chelsea had more possession and xG but felt pinned back for much of the opening 45 minutes.
Momentum swung in the second half with a raft of changes. On came Baltimore, Cuthbert and Thompson. The presence of a certain Scottish center mid visibly boosted the team, crowd and overall quality of play.
Two goals came from similar situations; a ball dropped in the box, Villa failed to clear and Chelsea pounced, firstly through Walsh (deflected off Kearns) and then from the returning Sam Kerr. The Australian’s availability comes at a great time with Ramirez currently out injured.
Plan Bee Doesn’t Work
Maresca named a somewhat rotated starting XI against Brentford, with Hato starting at left back, Fofana the RB/RCB hybrid role, and Buonanotte in the 10. It’s safe to say that it didn’t particularly pay off.
Now, it’s worth mentioning that this rotation was probably due to the international break, where Cucurella and James in particular played a lot of minutes. That said, Tosin was all over the place despite not not even being called up for England at all.
Chalobah and Caicedo gave a decent account f themselves, but the others were mostly below par, with Gittens in particular receiving a lot of social media backlash. The young Englishman was subbed around the hour mark for goalscorer Cole Palmer, but even his influence was not enough to bag all three points.
It’s a poor result against a Brentford side who had two losses and one win prior to Saturday’s game and rotation, although notable, cannot be an excuse. The depth in certain areas doesn’t quite feel the same as last season’s top three sides, despite large investment once again. There’s something to be said for simply playing a large number of games together, which many of these players had not. This is a hard thing to do when there’s huge turnover every summer.
The Chelsea Spot 
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