On Saturday, when Chelsea travel down to the south to play Bournemouth, they will face one of their recent nightmares. The agonising 4-0 loss at the Vitality Stadium, which marked the beginning of the end for the relationship between then-manager Maurizio Sarri and the supporters, will still bring back memories for the Blues despite the fact that they haven’t lost to the Cherries in more than four years.
But if you fast-forward four years, the situation is arguably much more hopeless. The Blues are coming off of their worst-ever Premier League campaign. They have also invested £1 billion in their team since being taken over by Todd Boehly and his consortium. Chelsea are currently sitting in a dismal 12th place after their first four games.
Mauricio Pochettino has often expressed confidence in the success of his plans for the team. But Blues supporters would want to start seeing those ideas really materialise. A fanbase as dependent on outcomes as Chelsea’s cannot be satisfied with just one victory, which came against Luton Town.
Jackson, Enzo and Sterling can play a significant role for Chelsea against Bournemouth
The one thing Nicolas Jackson has excelled at so far this season is placing himself in advantageous situations. Just yet, the final step of actually placing the ball in the goal hasn’t come naturally. Both of the goals Bournemouth gave up against Tottenham came from passes through the backline to runners in behind, most notably James Maddison’s opening goal. Enzo Fernandez and Jackson have already demonstrated they have the chemistry to master on this technique numerous times for Chelsea.
A perfect illustration of how to hit Bournemouth on the counter is Bryan Mbeumo’s late equaliser against them two weeks ago. There is plenty of room for Pochettino to control the game with the pace of his players. He has players like Raheem Sterling, Noni Madueke, Cole Palmer, and Mudryk waiting in the wings.
On the counter-attack so far this season, the Cherries have additionally demonstrated their susceptibility to pace. Mykhailo Mudryk might require a stretch of games in the starting XI, despite the slow start to his Chelsea career.
Many people complain about his “awful end product” and call him a “pace merchant”. It will take time and experience to get used to moving from a far less competitive league to the top division in world football at such a young age.
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