Maurizio Sarri’s first game in charge for Chelsea in the Premier League ended in a comfortable 3-0 win for the Blues against David Wagner’s Hudderfield Town. N’Golo Kante and Jorginho got themselves on the scoresheet in the first half before Pedro scored late on to complete the win for Chelsea. It was an easy outing for the Londoners but there is still a lot of work needed on their attacking patterns, with the team visibly lacking enough fluidity up top. Nevertheless, there were bright moments for Chelsea as I look to highlight them in our breakdown below.

Lineups:

Made using TacticalPad

Tactical Breakdown:

• Sarri made some interesting tweaks in Chelsea’s system when in possession, offering a completely different left sided dynamic to that from his Napoli side. Alonso did not venture forward on the overlap and instead was positioned deep to help stop counter attacks from Huddersfield

• Jorginho was instrumental in directing their flow and tempo of the game. He made intelligent blindsided runs to help progress the ball, becoming free of his marker and breaking lines with his pass selection -Kante was positioned deep in such scenarios for defensive stability

Conclusion:

Chelsea were not at their best and yet managed to pull off a convincing win. There is a lot of difference between Sarri’s Napoli side and his Chelsea side right now, as one would expect. The blueprint seems to be a bit different here with the left sided dynamic being far more different to what it was at Napoli. The profiles of the players in question are also vastly different with Jorginho being the constant. David Luiz and Antonio Rudiger might well end up being first choice centreback pairing for Chelsea with both the defenders putting in a good performance, especially with the ball at their feet. The signs look promising for Chelsea, but there is a lot to be worked on for Sarri and co right now.