Chelsea are 6 games into the new Premier League season and hoping to continue their strong run of form with a win tomorrow against Nottingham Forest.
We’re already seeing some big differences to our play last season, and to our expectations of what new manager Enzo Maresca would bring.
Last season saw us end the season with an average of 58.9% possession and a pass accuracy of 87.5%. That was with a manager known for relatively direct, quick counter-attacking football in Mauricio Pochettino.
With a former Pep Guardiola assistant now in charge in the form of Maresca, you’d expect number to jump up – especially since we’ve had a relatively easy start to the season in terms of opposition.
Yet the opposite is true – possession has fallen to 54.3%, and the accuracy of passes has fallen to 86.1%, indicating a higher number of long balls or risky passes. The sight of Robert Sanchez strolling into midfield and spraying passes around which we were promised in the summer feels far away now.
Maresca adapts – but mystery remains over long term plan
It’s great to see Maresca adapt his style to the players he’s got, and perhaps just the realities of trying to balance results with establishing his preferred style.
What will be interesting is seeing whether the Italian coach continues to try and move the team towards a more patient, possession based approach, or whether he embraces the new style long term. In the long term, that’s the sort of game most top clubs aim to play as it allows you to really throttle and control games like City do when they’re at their league dominating best.
From the fans’ perspective however, they might enjoy the high scoring, very open little bit of Pochettino legacy “chaos-ball” that the team are playing right now.
