Vesper

Could Jadon Sancho be the left-side threat Chelsea have lacked since Eden Hazard left? https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5767296/2024/09/15/jadon-sancho-Chelsea-left-side-threat/ In recent weeks, the first bullet point of the opposition scouting report on Chelsea has become increasingly clear: stop their right flank and you have a great chance to beat them. Wolves had paid a brutal price for giving Cole Palmer and Noni Madueke space to combine on that side in the second half of last month’s 6-2 defeat at Molineux. Bournemouth were determined not to make the same mistake — Lewis Cook man-marked Palmer in the right half-space while Milos Kerkez harassed Madueke from behind near the touchline. Even if one of Chelsea’s two most dangerous attackers received a forward pass with a successful first touch, no second touch went without a foul. Although it was not particularly subtle, it was highly effective. Madueke, scorer of four goals in his last six appearances for club and country, was reduced to gesturing in frustration when substituted in the 62nd minute at the Vitality Stadium. Palmer endured his quietest stretch on the pitch since his peripheral first half against Manchester City at Stamford Bridge on the opening weekend. Yet despite successfully shutting down the area of the pitch that contained Chelsea’s only reliable path to chance creation, Bournemouth lost. Their unlikely defeat was a tale of Sanchez and Sancho, and the way it played out could be hugely significant to the development of Enzo Maresca’s team. Robert Sanchez enjoyed the biggest night of his Chelsea career in goal, capping a string of solid saves with a spectacular dive to his left to keep out Evanilson’s first-half penalty kick and bail out Wesley Fofana for a horrendously botched backpass. Stirred by that reprieve, the half-time introduction of Jadon Sancho truly transformed the game and offered a tantalising glimpse into how he could change Chelsea for the better. Over the last six seasons, Chelsea’s attack has changed as much in style as it has in personnel, from a unit dominated by a master creator operating from the left (Eden Hazard) to one primarily deployed on the right (Palmer). Between those two polar extremes came a steady flow of influence from left to right under Thomas Tuchel, primarily driven by the understandable desire to maximise the rare attacking talents of Reece James as a rampaging wing-back. The graphic below shows how the distribution of Chelsea’s final-third entries in the Premier League has changed, with nearly a third of their attacks coming down the left flank six years ago but under a quarter last season. Any team’s attacking patterns will invariably skew towards the location of their best players, but a dramatic imbalance is rarely healthy. Hazard’s brilliance in 2018-19 was even more astonishing because Chelsea’s opponents frequently loaded their defensive resources towards him, away from the opposite flank where Cesar Azpilicueta and Willian offered more tactical ballast than creative balance. It was a similar story last season when Palmer frequently tormented teams from the right but Mauricio Pochettino struggled to get any consistent attacking production out of his left side. On that flank, Raheem Sterling did not deliver goals and assists at the level of a squad’s highest earner and Mykhailo Mudryk frequently looked unprepared to make a positive impact on Premier League games. Pedro Neto’s arrival from Wolves for £51.4million ($67m) last month was Chelsea’s first attempt to address this specific need in the transfer market but the Portuguese left-footer looks a little too predictable in his movements on the left flank. In the first half at the Vitality Stadium, he even struggled to get consistent touches amid a swarming Bournemouth press. His toils were amplified by Maresca’s surprising deployment of full-back Marc Cucurella as a receiver in the left half-space when Chelsea were in possession. Tracked dutifully by his marker Antoine Semenyo, Cucurella offered little more than an unusual distraction in the opening 45 minutes, giving the entire left side of the team the look of a post-modern tactical experiment. It took Sancho three minutes on the pitch to make sense of it all, receiving the ball in space on the left and playing a quick, incisive pass to pick out Cucurella’s underlapping run into a crossing position; the resulting delivery came agonisingly close to giving Madueke a tap-in. From that moment, he oozed confidence and class, immediately sure of his place in Maresca’s system and his ability to find his new team-mates in front of the travelling Chelsea fans, who needed no second invitation to sing his name. Shortly before the hour mark, he edged infield from the left, freezing two Bournemouth defenders with a tight dribble and manufacturing a window through which he flicked a pass right to an unmarked Jackson, who curled over. That proved a prelude to the sequence that resulted in Chelsea’s winner: Sancho angling his body infield to survey his options, jinking and shifting to create separation from his defender, then picking the perfect time to find Christopher Nkunku with the momentum and weight of pass that enabled the Frenchman to swivel and wriggle between three Bournemouth defenders and beat Mark Travers with a quick shot, as clever as it was clinical. Chelsea fans have grown accustomed to seeing Palmer nonchalantly dissect Premier League defences with similar passes from the right side over the past year. Now, in Sancho, they have a winger with the vision, spatial awareness and ball mastery to do the same from the left, which should make life much harder on opponents with finite defensive tools to stifle Maresca’s attack. “I said when we brought in Jadon that the reason why is because we were looking for another winger like Noni,” Maresca said after the Bournemouth win. “Noni is doing that on the right side, winning one-v-one, creating chances, scoring goals and we were looking for the same on our left side with Jadon.” The key for Chelsea’s new attacking balance is ensuring they get this version of Sancho consistently — the Borussia Dortmund vintage rather than the tainted Manchester United variety. If they do, supporters will be singing his name weekly and Maresca’s front line will soon be the spectacular sum of its hugely talented individual parts.

Chelsea Women’s Jorja Fox suffers ACL injury https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5779119/2024/09/19/jorja-fox-Chelsea-acl-injury/ Chelsea Women right-back Jorja Fox, on loan at Crystal Palace, is set for an extended period on the sidelines after sustaining an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury. The 21-year-old, who recently signed a new deal at the west London club through to 2027, will undergo a period of rehabilitation at Chelsea, having also suffered an ACL injury in May 2023. This is the second ACL injury in the space of a week for Chelsea following midfielder Sophie Ingle sustaining the injury, with strikers Sam Kerr and Mia Fishel both also out with a similar issue. In December 2023, Chelsea defender Aniek Nouwen also suffered the same injury. Only the injuries sustained by Kerr and Ingle actually occurred at Chelsea, with Fox’s injuries happening during spells at Brighton & Hove Albion and Palace respectively, while Fishel was on international duty with the USWNT and Nouwen was with the Netherlands Under-23 squad. Fox has made five first-team appearances for Chelsea, having previously had loan spells at Charlton Athletic and Brighton. GO DEEPER ACL injuries in women's football: Why the high risk and can they be prevented? What is an ACL injury? An anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury is a tear or sprain of the ACL, one of the strong bands of tissue that connect the thigh bone (femur) to shinbone (tibia) at the knee joint. The ACL runs diagonally through the inside of the knee to give the joint stability. The ACL also adds stability nd control for vertical movement of the lower leg. Knee injuries can occur during sports such as skiing, tennis, squash, football and rugby. ACL injuries are one of the most common types of knee injuries. ACL tears occur when the lower leg extends forward too much, while the muscle can also be torn if the knee and lower leg are twisted. These injuries are common across sports, including football, and can be a result of an incorrect landing from a jump, a sudden stop or change of direction, or an overextension following a collision. Surgery is often required following these injuries, which can result in lengthy delays lasting multiple months. GO DEEPER Footwear problems show 'systemic gender inequality' in sport - British MPs (Harriet Lander – Chelsea FC/Chelsea FC via Getty Images)

Anthony Taylor not given Premier League game after showing record number of yellow cards last weekend https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5773153/2024/09/17/anthony-taylor-referee-yellow-cards/ Anthony Taylor will not referee a Premier League fixture this weekend after issuing the most yellow cards in top-flight history during Chelsea’s clash against Bournemouth last Saturday. Despite not being put on refereeing duties for any of the 10 matches in matchweek five, Taylor will be the fourth official for Ipswich Town’s trip to Southampton on Saturday and Brighton & Hove Albion’s match against Nottingham Forest on Sunday. Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL), the body overseeing officiating in English football, clarified that no referee officiates every matchweek, as they rotate between refereeing, serving as fourth officials and handling video assistant referee (VAR) duties. Last Saturday’s match between Bournemouth and Chelsea saw 14 players shown a yellow card at the Vitality Stadium, as well as head coaches Andoni Iraola and Enzo Maresca. Despite the flurry of cautions, no players were sent off. Six Bournemouth players received a yellow card, while eight from Chelsea were also booked. Taylor was subjected to abuse online following the game with the Premier League now looking into particularly threatening messages and the PGMOL offering their support. GO DEEPER Behold the Premier League's worst-behaved match ever: We recap all 14 bookings A record number of 65 yellow cards were shown in the Premier League on matchweek four. On Sunday, Australian referee Jarred Gillett issued seven yellow cards during the first half of the north London derby between Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal, only booking one player after the break. Taylor, meanwhile, was promoted to the Select Group panel of referees in 2010, allowing him to referee Premier League matches. The 45-year-old has also officiated major finals including the 2015 League Cup and the FA Cup in 2017 and 2020. Taylor’s international career took off in 2013 when he became a FIFA-listed referee, enabling him to referee UEFA and FIFA matches, including the Super Cup in 2020 and the Nations League Final in 2021.

Enzo Maresca’s big call at Chelsea: Nkunku or Jackson up front? https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5773427/2024/09/18/Chelsea-jackson-nkunku-maresca/ Jabbing a finger into his own chest as he ran towards the travelling Chelsea supporters at the Vitality Stadium, Christopher Nkunku’s energy in celebrating his winning goal over Bournemouth was as much angry defiance as pure jubilation. “The reason I used Christo in that moment was I thought we were creating chances but we lacked quality inside the box,” Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca said after the match, explaining his decision to introduce Nkunku from the bench in place of Nicolas Jackson in the 79th minute. “So the idea to use him as a No 9 was because, any ball inside the box, we know he’s a quality player and could decide the game.” Nkunku revealed that Maresca had told him to “enjoy” his 11 minutes on the pitch. He certainly relished receiving Jadon Sancho’s clever pass on the swivel, bouncing between two Bournemouth defenders and poking the ball just inside Mark Travers’ far post, but the frustration that poured out of him immediately after the goal was equally understandable. Having featured more than anyone else in Maresca’s squad during pre-season, Nkunku appeared primed to announce himself in the Premier League in the manner that was denied him by a succession of injuries in 2023-24. Instead, he has found himself the most unexpected victim of an attacking rotation at Chelsea that became markedly more crowded in August with the arrivals of Pedro Neto, Joao Felix and Sancho. As he had been against Crystal Palace a week earlier, Nkunku was Maresca’s third attacker off the bench against Bournemouth. A growing number of Chelsea fans are wondering if he should instead be the team’s first-choice striker — particularly since the words of his head coach could also be viewed as an implicit criticism of Jackson, who drew one reasonable save from Travers but rarely looked a threat at the Vitality Stadium. The lobby for deploying Nkunku as a No 9 is as much about Jackson, who continues to be a strangely polarising figure in the grand Chelsea picture. Scoring 14 non-penalty goals in his debut Premier League campaign helped secure a new contract that extends his stay at Stamford Bridge until June 2033 — the joint-longest commitment in the squad along with the improved deal given to Cole Palmer earlier this season — and yet the Senegal international remains a popular target of mockery for rival fans as well as derision from vocal sections of the Chelsea support. Jackson has not yet proven himself capable of being a finisher on par with Nkunku’s highest levels of efficiency at RB Leipzig (the Frenchman scored 32 non-penalty goals, 5.4 more than expected, in his two final Bundesliga campaigns). Jackson significantly underperformed relative to his non-penalty xG (npxG) in the Premier League in 2023-24, scoring around 4.6 goals fewer than expected, according to Opta. This stands out relative to the top 10 scorers of non-penalty goals in the Premier League last season, though it is interesting to note that Erling Haaland also underperformed his npxG: Jackson’s return of two non-penalty goals in the first four Premier League matches of 2024-25 also constitutes an underperformance relative to his npxG of 2.5. But to focus solely on finishing efficiency (which can fluctuate wildly from season to season) is to relegate the single most reliable indicator of a player that has the capability to be a prolific goalscorer: the ability to generate expected goals (xG) in the first place. Haaland was the only player in the Premier League to generate more non-penalty expected goals than Jackson in 2023-24. Even adjusting for minutes played, the Senegal international’s 0.6 npxG per 90 minutes ranked behind only the Manchester City phenomenon and Newcastle star Alexander Isak, whom Chelsea enquired about signing in the summer: Jackson may not be converting his scoring chances with elite efficiency just yet, but he is getting himself into scoring positions with elite regularity. It is little wonder why Chelsea are so bullish on a 23-year-old who has only played as a No 9 for 18 months, particularly since composure and finishing technique are easier to learn and hone on the training pitch than the subtle nuances of movement, timing and instincts. None of which is to discount the possibility that Nkunku might be the better No 9 option for Chelsea right now. There is an increasingly substantial body of evidence over the past four years to indicate that he is an above-average finisher, and it is hard to imagine Jackson being able to manufacture the narrow shooting window in a crowded Bournemouth penalty area as deftly as he did. Jackson’s other skills are the bulwark of his case to remain a Chelsea starter: his selfless pressing, his intelligent movement, his improving hold-up play and his often sublime link-up with attacking teammates. He more often than not makes those around him better but similar can be said of Nkunku, who can do most of the same things to at least an equivalent level. The best argument against regularly starting Nkunku as a No 9 is that he has even less experience leading an attack as a lone striker than Jackson; his two best scoring seasons at RB Leipzig were achieved orbiting Andre Silva, a more traditional focal point frontman. Many of Chelsea’s best pre-season moments under Mauricio Pochettino in the summer of 2023 came from Nkunku and Jackson combining in the final third. Maresca would do well to get them both into the same team, but at whose expense? Nkunku is not a winger, and he is unlikely to be deployed as the left-sided No 8 as long as Palmer also operates centrally — not least because Moises Caicedo needs someone standing within 30 yards of him in midfield. Maresca’s primary duty is to pick a balanced, coherent team, regardless of who is in it. Chelsea’s summer transfer activity has left him with far more attacking weapons than Pochettino had, but also many more difficult decisions. “At the end of the game I just said to the players — Christo, Cole, Jadon, Joao, Noni (Madueke), Misha (Mykhailo Mudryk), Pedro — they are not all going to play all the games,” Maresca said after the Bournemouth win. “All they need to do is exactly what they did tonight.” A run of games as a No 9 at Jackson’s expense could be in Nkunku’s future at Chelsea. Or there could simply be more cameo appearances, and enjoyment tinged with anger.

My predictions for Arsenal's summer 2025 3 main buys CF Viktor Gyökeres LW (one of the following) Florian Wirtz Jamal Musiala Khvicha Kvaratskhelia Rafael Leão less likely Xavi Simons Nico Williams Bradley Barcola CMF/DMF Martín Zubimendi or maybe (if either are available) Gavi or Pedri

Lautaro no longer has a £93m release clause he renewed in August until 2029 and volunatarily had the release clause removed there is no chance he is leaving Inter for some time he turns 30yo in summer 2027 so very unlikely we would even mover for him unless it was next summer (and at 28yo he will be past our age boundary) and that will be almost impossible, especially as he is the Inter captain now the main teams I can see moving for him are Real and Barca, whichever one doesnt get Håland down the road, or maybe PSG (I canot see him all that enthused about moving to PSG) or maybe, maybe Arsenal (Gyökeres seems a better fit for them overall) or Pool

he needs to become consistently fully healthy or he needs to be sold my last bit of patience will be gone if he is still injured come springtime he is a shadow of his former self from 2, 3, 4 years ago we need to replace him at RW (Malo competition) with one of the following Achraf Hakimi (crazy hard pull) Jeremie Frimpong Michael Kayode Nahuel Molina Wilfried Singo (can play CB as well, 1.90m) Vanderson Kiliann Sildillia Héctor Fort Arnau Martínez Lorenz Assignon Josha Vagnoman Iván Fresneda

Foot: left the last thing we need is another left footed right winger

down go Barca

Monaco 2 1 over Barca atm

Sterling is the first English player to play for 4 diuffrent teams in the CL

Sterling and Calafiori on

Square on (Cuadrado) 36yo

Raya so far this season 93.3 save percentage (all plays, not just pens) highest in the Big Five leagues last season, when he won the EPL golden glove, it was 68%

world class

what a save (twice) by Raya!!!!!

yep pen good VAR

lets see what VAR says

no inside

seems to have started outside the box

pen on Arse pending VAR

none will come here anyway I wager but is nice to lay down preditictions overall it hardly takes a tonne of research

I highly doubt Dias would come here, unfortunately best CBs on the planet atm IMHO included four 30 somethings William Saliba Rúben Dias Ronald Araujo Alessandro Bastoni Gabriel Magalhães Antonio Rüdiger Virgil van Dijk Bremer Marquinhos John Stones

1 1 Barca scored Yamal but Garcia red carded

Conor on the bench