On July twentieth 2023 Chelsea confronted Wrexham of their first pre-season recreation within the USA and gained that recreation 5-0.
Virtually precisely a yr later it was a case of deja vu as The Blues confronted Wrexham once more within the USA however this time round, they had been truly fortunate to not be on the incorrect aspect of defeat. Enzo Maresca was very near dropping his very first recreation in cost if it wasn’t for an excellent late save from Lucas Bergstrom, and a tidy end from Lesley Ugochukwu.
Wrexham are a division larger than they had been this time final yr and so they had one other yr of expertise with the identical supervisor and principally the identical squad. I knew they had been going to trigger us issues, I knew they’d be well-organised, and I knew they’d be sitting off in a deep block permitting Chelsea to maintain the ball in deep areas. This may be robust to interrupt down regardless of the stage is you’re going through.
What I additionally know is that we must always by no means over react to pre-season pleasant video games, particularly the very first recreation.
In fact, all of us need to see positives and progress because the video games go on and once more in fact, it’s nice if we will get some wins on the board too for momentum. All of that’s completely necessary. However so is the truth that we shouldn’t over react to something. There was at all times going to be fatigue, at all times going to be sloppy passes, at all times going to be rustiness, and at all times going to be time wanted for Maresca to implement his system.
There was many positives to remove from this recreation regardless of conceding two and virtually dropping the sport.
After Chelsea scored the primary aim they dominated and used the ball effectively. After beginning off very gradual and cautious in possession, Chelsea quickly began shifting it faster with one-touch passing and being progressive with actions. This was our greatest spell of the sport from then till half time.
As at all times, the wholesale modifications at half time then put us again to sq. one and likewise with much less high quality on the pitch. Wrexham started to return out the blocks a bit extra and provided extra of a risk. They acquired their targets from battling and being sensible and displaying high quality within the remaining third. Chelsea appeared lackluster by means of a lot of the second half however nonetheless had respectable spells of possession too.
Chelsea bossed it with 75% possession and had 5 extra makes an attempt on aim (11) than Wrexham had (6). But Wrexham had been extra scientific and higher with their efforts on aim, having 1 extra on course (4) than Chelsea did (3).
Chelsea made 767 passes in comparison with Wrexham’s 254, and so they additionally had a 91% passing accuracy in comparison with Wrexham’s 73%. However in fact, none of that issues except you’ve the top product to get the scoreline constructive, which is at all times an important stat in soccer.
We have now to keep in mind that we’ve got many key gamers to nonetheless come again in as effectively, so we’ll see extra enhancements as we go on. In the long run, we did effectively to get the draw right here, think about the meltdown if we misplaced!?
It was a great little run round to stretch the legs and begin to put in place how they need to play for the remainder of the season.
There was negatives in addition to positives, and I’m certain that Maresca can have so much to remove and work on consequently.
“I’m very joyful in regards to the efficiency typically,” Maresca stated after the sport. “We began simply two weeks in the past, it’s necessary that us because the workers can begin to see the identification of the staff. Tonight it was fairly clear.
“For certain we’re going to add extra options.”
By the way, I discovered that remark fairly attention-grabbing. Is he saying they’re on the lookout for options within the switch market or inside the squad? Both method, he doesn’t seem absolutely content material with what he has seen.
We transfer on to our subsequent recreation now in opposition to Celtic on Saturday night time at 9pm UK time with some positives to take and a pair good particular person performances because the rust continues to fall off.
