Chelsea, By Committee
With manager Emma Hayes resting the usual front three of Pernille Harder, Sam Kerr and Fran Kirby, a tactical analysis of Chelsea Women’s attacking movement in the 1–0 win over Aston Villa.
“A clean sheet, solid performance, a six out of 10, it was nothing more than that, no outstanding performer.”
Chelsea manager Emma Hayes wasn’t effusive in praise following her team’s 1–0 triumph over Aston Villa, but she wasn’t necessarily casting aspersions on any of her players either.
With the midweek Champions League fixture in view, the Blues boss rested numerous key personnel for this WSL game; her post-match comments perhaps rather hinted at the absence of her three oustanding offensive performers — Pernille Harder, Sam Kerr and Fran Kirby, all left out of the starting XI.
Instead, this win was earned by committee, Hayes relying on an proactive blueprint instilled throughout the Chelsea squad, pervasive even amongst less-heralded, less-frequently used role players.
In the attacking third of the pitch, emphasis was put on movement, knowing they would come up against a defensively deep-lying team.
“They were in a 5–4–1 block sitting really low,” Hayes explained of her opponents. “You have to work hard and drag them out of spaces.”
The front trio on the day — Erin Cuthbert, Beth England and Jessie Fleming — shared that responsibility; dropping deeper to link with the midfield, utilising half-spaces and gaps between defensive lines, attempting runs to force the opposition out of shape.
But the greater reality was that it was an all-hands-on-deck approach, with many of the Chelsea outfield players rotating in and out of forward positions.
In the 10th minute for example, Fleming — who started, almost nominally, as the left winger — picks up the ball between her two central midfielders. Note that the wide left area is occupied not only by wing-back Jonna Andersson, but by Magda Eriksson as well, up from defence.
Creating numerical superiority in the middle of the pitch, Fleming quickly shifts the ball on towards Sophie Ingle in the right half-space.
It results in an overload on the opposite side of the Villa defence, though Ingle probably makes the wrong decision in this instance by taking a speculative long-range shot.
Their attempted dragging of the defence was exhibited in the 18th minute, with both England and Fleming coming towards the ball.
Each attracts a marker towards them, with centre midfielder Ingle smartly identifying a forward run in between. She’s able to steal a beat on the last line, however Aniek Nouwen’s ball over the top is slightly overhit.
Though the results weren’t always necessarily visible, the process behind them was sound, and they did marry up on one occasion to produce the only goal of the game.
Again, England comes off the last line of defence to make herself available as the short option. It creates uncertainty in Villa centreback Elisha N’Dow, who isn’t sure whether to follow England’s movement, or to hold her position.
Ji So-Yun, who was excellent throughout and produced a match-leading 8 shot-creating actions in total, plays a delightful ball over N’Dow’s head for Fleming to ghost onto and finish past the goalkeeper, Hannah Hampton, one-on-one.
Chelsea piled on the pressure as the first half wore on.
Cuthbert, in the 36th minute, eases into a soft area away from the Villa defence and midfield, to provide an option for Ji.
And though there are 4 opposition players in the vicinity, none of them can get close enough to Cuthbert’s attempt on goal, which Hampton just tips onto the crossbar.
“I thought we did that well in the first half,” Hayes summarised. “The run from Jessie (Fleming) and the movement from Beth (England) was good. We built on that.”
In the second half however, they unfortunately lost that momentum, as the Aston Villa midfielders pressed further up the pitch, in search of turnovers and an equaliser.
There was one instance though, in a 60th-minute transition where the Ji-Cuthbert connection again evidenced smart forward movement.
Cuthbert, who looks more and more confident with each passing game (even attempting a Cruyff turn at one stage during the match), smartly flairs out wider rather than making a directly vertical run.
Ji in possession, attracts 2 Villa defenders before slipping the ball across to Cuthbert. It opens up a gaping hole for the Scot, however Ji is taken down before she’s able to get on the end of the return pass.
Over the last third of the 90 minutes, the Chelsea backline settled more frequently for long-balls bypassing the Villa press, attempting rather unsuccessfully to find their forwards in space behind.
And whilst Kerr and Kirby were brought on to see out the latter stages of the game, most of the hard work had already been done.
Chelsea will move on to tougher fixtures on the calendar, part and parcel of competing for trophies on domestic and European fronts. However manager Hayes also knows it is a very congested calendar, and she won’t be able to rely on the dynamic Harder-Kerr-Kirby partnership every single game.
With that in mind, the Bank’s Stadium runout will have been another good opportunity to test out her squad depth and provide minutes to some outside her first choice XI.
The showing should give her more confidence that she can rely on more players to adhere to her tactical gameplan, and give her that six out of 10, solid performance when needed.
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