Chelsea rehearsed one of their goals against Bournemouth the very same day
Practice makes perfect, and that was the case for Chelsea in their 5-1 triumph over Bournemouth at the weekend.
Jordan Henderson scored a well-taken free-kick in the second half, something that the midfielder had been working on during the international break. Morgan Rogers wanted the set piece, but in the end his decision to step aside and let his teammate take charge was the right one.
However, it was not the only thing that Chelsea have been practising. A lot of preparation also went into their fourth goal, it seems, which came just before Henderson’s free-kick.
Before kick-off on Saturday, football.london saw Chelsea rehearsing a phase of play during their warm-up that involved left wing-back Pep Chavarria bombing down the left before looking for an early cross. Mid-game, the Spaniard replicated the very same move.
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It saw Joao Pedro get on the end of it and convert to grab his second goal of the game. It may sound like a simple move they rehearsed before implementing, but it bodes very well for them going forward.
This season, a lot of Chelsea’s goals have felt like they have come from individual quality that Pedro, Rogers and Cole Palmer have produced. There is nothing wrong with that, but Xabi Alonso still needs to coach attacking moves and patterns, as Palmer and Rogers scoring with efforts worth an xG of 0.20 or whatever is not sustainable.
However, against Bournemouth, their fourth goal clearly showed Alonso can coach a specific and effective attacking move and implement it during a game. Hopefully, there is more of that this Saturday. There needs to be.
Chelsea face David Moyes’ Everton, who are likely to sit in a low block. Low blocks have caused Chelsea problems in the past, but they have an attack that looks capable of penetrating most defences.
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