MB Scouting

Chelsea had a tough start to the season only winning 1 out of their opening 6 matches against Luton.  They drew against Liverpool and Bournemouth and lost to West ham, Aston villa and Nottingham Forest. Since they lost to Aston villa on 24 th  September Chelsea have won 3, drew 2 and only lost once. The defeat came from Brentford, the draws from: Man City and Arsenal, and wins against Fulham, Burnley, and Tottenham.  24 players have left Chelsea this summer and the club has had a change of manager so it was always likely they would have a slow start to the season. Chelsea’s average age of their summer signings was 21 with a large majority of the players they bought in having little to no experience of the Premier league.  Formations   In the first few games, Pochettino experimented with players and formations while he tried to find the right balance of the team. In the first few fixtures Pochettino used a back 3 with Gusto and Chilwell deployed as wing back...

Arsenal principals of play   Offensive   Control possession Keep Sheffield under pressure and pinned back Rotation between forward players LW hold width vs Bogle Hit early balls from Raya where possible   Defensive Win the ball back quickly Limit opposition time on the ball Give little space between defensive lines   Arsenal started with a 4-3-3 formation however changed this throughout the game to create different overloads on the pitch to move Sheffield United. When in safe possession of the ball, Zinchenko moved into the center of the pitch to create a double pivot with Rice. Arsenal then created a back 3 of White, Saliba and Kiwior. Kiwior offers a nice balance on the left side being a left footed CB and with him being a good passer of the ball, it opens more passing lanes for Arsenal on the left side of the pitch and maybe a reason as to why Gabriel Martinelli stayed wide for the majority of the first half. Arsenal end up in a very interchangeable formation wher...