Chelsea vs Swansea City: 5 things learned
3. Chelsea’s aged defense can be a major issue
Last season the otherwise brilliant rearguard of Chelsea was exposed on some occasions especially when Chelsea went to Tottenham on New Year’s eve and conceded and unimaginable 5 goals.
It was said that Tottenham found a way to unlock the puzzle which would show the others to win against Chelsea. But, Chelsea held on to win the title.
This season everybody’s eyes were on Chelsea. They studied the intricacies and maybe got a lesson or two from the Tottenham game that the only way to make the game hard for Chelsea was to take the game to them and try to exploit an aging Chelsea defense.
It was exactly what Garry Monk set his team up to do. Despite the long periods of Chelsea dominance, Swansea attacked vigorously with energy and pace, the two characteristics which cause the maximum problems for Terry and Co.
Swans striker Gomis found space behind the Chelsea defense on a lot of occasions, one of them which resulted in a penalty. Terry and Cahill left massive space between them and behind them while Ivanovic was far from his best thus leading to the equalizers.
So is there finally a solution to the Chelsea problem which every team in the league was looking for?
Next: Hazardous attack