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It has been the switch of the season. Since changing shape to 3-4-2-1, Chelsea have won 11 consecutive league games. They have scored 25 goals and conceded just two.
Should their winning run continue against Bournemouth on Monday, they will set a new club record for consecutive wins.
Without succeeding, opponents have devoted more time to trying to stop Chelsea, with a variety of different ploys.
Carry on as normal
The default formation in the Premier League can be 4-2-3-1. Manchester United had drawn 0-0 at Liverpool using that tactic. Jose Mourinho did not customise his team for Chelsea and lost 4-0.
Perhaps, as United were behind inside a minute, tactics were irrelevant. Yet picking a side without a specialist holding midfielder (Marouane Fellaini played, not Michael Carrick) afforded Eden Hazard and Pedro too much room. Both scored.
The counter-attacking 4-4-2
Leicester deployed the approach that propelled them to the title last season. Conceding after seven minutes at Stamford Bridge, however, meant Chelsea could drop deep to negate their pace.
Leicester actually enjoyed more possession (45 per cent) than may have been expected, but could not fashion a shot on target with it.
Few systems are worse than 4-4-2 when facing a No 10. Chelsea had two, using Hazard and Pedro behind Leicester’s two central midfielders with N’Golo Kante and Nemanja Matic ahead of them to create overloads.
Matching up
If you cannot beat them, join them. Everton started the season playing 3-4-2-1. They reverted to the same system at Stamford Bridge. They lost 5-0.
If it suggested it is not exactly wise to match up with inferior players, Everton had an additional problem. With Idrissa Gueye suspended and both James McCarthy and Muhamed Besic injured, they lacked a ball-winner in central midfield.
Once again, Hazard and Pedro were allowed to roam to devastating effect. And without their best leftback, Leighton Baines, Everton permitted Chelsea’s right-sided duo of Cesar Azpilicueta and Victor Moses to have the most touches of the ball.
High pressing
The approach that has come closest to succeeding. Tottenham Hotspur played their usual 4-2-3-1 but looked to win the ball high up the pitch. In the first half, they pinned Chelsea’s wingbacks into their own half, so Antonio Conte in effect had a back five.
They became the first team to score against Chelsea since Conte’s change of shape, through Christian Eriksen.
Yet in the second half, the league leaders turned the table. Right wingback Moses ran 70 yards into the Spurs box to score the winner in a 2-1 triumph. Perhaps, in a game of two halves, Tottenham’s problem was that they could not sustain their early intensity.
All-out attack
Manchester City took Tottenham’s high-pressing game and mixed it with an attempt to match up. Whereas others played three central defenders with full-backs as wingbacks against Chelsea, Pep Guardiola played a back three with wingers high up the field.
His 3-2-4-1 system was bold. That might have been justified if Kevin De Bruyne, instead of hitting the post, had put City 2-0 up.
Instead Chelsea, who had only 39 per cent of possession, defended well and managed to counter-attack an exposed City defence, who lacked the understanding of their counterparts in Conte’s team.
Costa, Willian and Hazard all scored on the break and Chelsea won 3-1.
Blanket defence
Since the City game, it has felt that opponents have given up on trying to beat Chelsea. They are now simply aiming to stop them. West Bromwich Albion held out until the 76th minute.
Tony Pulis played a narrow back four, to limit the space for Chelsea’s inside-forwards, but used his wingers outside them to in effect create a back six, augmented by two essentially defensive midfielders. David Moyes, who invariably prefers a back four, fielded a back five — with little indication the full-backs were wingbacks — and two holding midfielders who can both play centre-back.
Sunderland had just 34 per cent of possession at home, Albion 33 per cent away. Neither had an attacking threat. Both at least defended well.
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