3 Things Learned vs Hull City

aChelsea once again scored 2 goals in a Premier League game, but they also let in 2 at the back. This has been a theme all season, and I analysed why in my last article on the Blue Lions site. Let’s quickly dive into this game and see those details that we might have missed live.

Chelsea’s front 3 again showed that they are a high-level attack.

Chelsea faced a Hull City side that hadn’t conceded in the league before they met Chelsea’s front 3. Now, should I say front 3 or 4? Well, Neto is still hot and cold, so…

Chelsea has scored 10 goals this Premier League season, and 90% of those are from the front 4. Which is what you really want, in all honesty, as you want your forwards taking turns to chip in with goals and assists more than most positions on the pitch, which is still somewhat alien to Chelsea fans because for years, midfielders and defenders end up scoring more often, apart from Palmer and Joao in recent years. This season, Joao, Palmer and Rogers have scored 3, 2 and 3 goals respectively and provided a good number of assists as well. This continued against Hull City, as Rogers didn’t take up to 8 minutes to get Chelsea off the mark (Another Early goal). The way it came about is quite interesting, but I will save it for another point. Joao Pedro assisted Rogers for that goal, and Palmer in turn assisted Joao Pedro for his goal in the 2nd half when Chelsea were in dire need of an equaliser, which they ended up getting after going down for the 2nd time in the week. Hull City were surprisingly disjointed

But Palmer went all by himself to cut back expertly to Joao Pedro to roof it into the top of the net with a special finish.

Chelsea’s lack of defensive concentration against Hull City

Chelsea again not only failed to keep a clean sheet but also conceded more xGA to Hull than Hull did to them. Although it wasn’t by much, Chelsea conceded above 1.0xG for the 4th time this season in the Premier League. How many games have Chelsea played in the Premier League, you ask? Yes 4. It has been poor off the ball for Chelsea, and yes

This time it was less of the shape of Xabi because the shape and the understanding of the Chelsea players on when to press, how to stay in a block, the players to follow the positioning was much much better than in previous games.

The Chelsea players were much more united and locked in with their defending duties; it was in a 5-4-1 shape as well. Palmer and Rogers tucked well in to help those half spaces and help turn them into a high press.

But loss of concentration still caused Chelsea to concede. The first Hull goal especially. Failing to win 2 duels. Fofana let the ball run, and he didn’t allow McBurnie to get a head on it, but let it run because he probably thought Gusto would deal with it. I said he’s not categorically wrong there, but he can take more responsibility, and probably the goal doesn’t come. Gusto also does take charge of that situation, and Hato misjudged the flight of the ball, and Chelsea concede comically.

Chelsea are strong on attacking set pieces and still shaky from defensive one but a detail from Rogers goal

Chelsea scored from another set piece, but not in the way you expect. Chelsea didn’t get a corner against Hull, But what happened was it was from a Hull City corner. Chelsea employed the same tactic from the Arsenal game, and one we Chelsea fans aren’t exactly new to if they watched last season. Chelsea left Joao, Rogers and Palmer up the pitch to reduce the number of players in the box, providing Martinez with a clearer path to claiming the ball and also giving Chelsea a chance to directly transition against Hull, and that is exactly what happened.

Martinez reaches the ball and spills it, but Colwill clears, and Chelsea are in a good position if the ball can drop to a Chelsea player, and it does. Palmer gets the ball, and Chelsea are 4v4 and have a transition opportunity, and through a very half-chance, they score.

The power of leaving those types of players in the opposition half to immediately turn defensive situations into attacking is quite interesting and a weapon for Chelsea.

However, the 2nd Hull City goal further demonstrates how Chelsea struggle with defending them, still. This time, Martinez again tries to catch the ball but fails to, and a Hull City header gets it off the post to Belloumi, and he was free outside the box, which also shows the downside to not putting enough players to defend the corner.

Although, as we saw against Arsenal, this set-piece routine is not the only one but at least it should account for the basic necessities required to defend the actual set-piece. This was there for the Rogers goal.

This was the situation then: Rogers started deeper, with no free man at the edge of the box.

Yeah, Chelsea still haven’t looked entirely convincing defending set pieces, especially after conceding to one and another against Leeds earlier in the week. It needs to improve. I know its almost impossible not to concede from such entirely but the team can concede less from them.

The team is actually progressing but is still plagued by some of the issues that have been there from seasons past. But given time, I believe these things would get ironed out as you can see Xabi’s imprint. He finally tried to implement short build-up play, and his defensive shape looks much better. It will come together as Chelsea have time to work on it.