Pep Chavarría

And then when you have that, there's nobody in the middle of the pitch that's able to help get the ball through.

And I think what ended up happening was Pep Chavarria was getting a lot of space and that's where the threat was coming.

Because Chelsea couldn't play through the middle of the pitch at all, they were going wide to Chavarria and then... um he he's got a good amount of energy he's willing to hold width like he um knows when to go he doesn't slow the game down he's very like vertical which is good but um It felt a bit one-dimensional a lot of the time.

It felt like our biggest threat in the first half in possession was just going out to Chavarria where he had a bit of space.

And I think that was to do with the midfield just not being able to do that.

But I'm not saying that Henderson and Barco are not good enough and all that stuff.

I'm going to go back to my normal self.

I'm not going to be a daring kind of wing back.

Praise, rather.

Pep Chavarria on the other side.

Someone who every time he plays, I have to double check who he is.

Yeah, I have no idea.

Now he signed this Pep.

I don't even know how to spell this.

Pep Chavarria.

Okay.

When Palestra comes in, I still don't think Neto is going to get loads of starts in that position.

I think Neto would be more competition over on the left, maybe over Pep Chavarria or Hato.

There is, in my opinion...

Too many unknowns right now in this Chelsea team.

to the bench.

So Lacroix, Chavarria, Henderson, Barker and Welbeck come in.

That's full Premier League debuts for four of those five players and back to a back three.

All kind of suggests, A, that Chelsea have got some injury issues and some holes in their squad, but also that Xabi Alonso is maybe still scratching around trying to find the best fit for the players that he does have available.

But beyond that, I think the more concerning thing than that with set-pieces is Is there a hard ceiling in terms of the limitations of Chelsea's personnel? They're not a very physical group.

In some cases, they are a very small group.

People like Valentin Barco, Pep Chavarria, when they're on the pitch against a team like Brentford, they are always going to be targeted, whether it's open play or... or dead balls and you can do all these fancy things like blocking and screening and you know playing the man not the ball and and and doing it in such a way that maybe it doesn't trigger VAR but ultimately if the ball is right six foot three beats five foot seven every single time That is a law as old as football.

And I think just as damning about that first goal was not just the Schuster versus Barco mismatch at the back post, which was actually very similar to the goal that Chelsea gave away against Leeds.

Because you signed these Marco Palestras.

You signed this Pep Chavarria, bro.

This Pep Chavarria, bro.

I don't understand, bro.

Yeah, he's really bad, too.

So this is going to be exclusively for the first 60 minutes.

And there was something that I wasn't overly happy with, but I thought Pep Chavarria was good.

He wanted the ball, especially in the first half.

He wanted the ball.

Okay, it was a different one.

No. Rodgers was second with 7.2.

Pep Chavarria was third with 7.1. And the winner with 7.4, Wesley Fofana.

This is where it starts to make no sense.

And then when you have that, there's nobody in the middle of the pitch that's able to help get the ball through.

And I think what ended up happening was Pep Chavarria was getting a lot of space and that's where the threat was coming.

Because Chelsea couldn't play through the middle of the pitch at all, they were going wide to Chavarria and then... he's got a good amount of energy.

He's willing to hold width.

Like he knows when to go.

He's very like vertical, which is good.

But yeah, It felt a bit one-dimensional a lot of the time.

It felt like our biggest threat in the first half in possession was just going out to Chavarria where he had a bit of space.

So this is what we have to deal with.

Emi Martinez in goal, Wesley Fofana, Maxence Lacroix, Levi Colwell, Pedro Neto, Jordan Henderson playing for the first time, Valentin Barco, Pep Chavarria, Rodgers, Palmer.

And Danny Welbeck.

That was the Chelsea start in 11.