On Tuesday night, Chelsea and Leicester City met at Stamford Bridge for a crucial contest in the race for Champions League qualification.
The match came with added intrigue courtesy of Leicester's FA Cup final win over the same opposition mere days beforehand. Ultimately, Chelsea came out on top in the Premier League return clash, pushing ahead of Leicester in the table. But the win did not come as easily as it perhaps should have done.
Chelsea started fast. Their fans were in the stadium, which had a real effect on some of the players. Antonio Rudiger in particular seemed to appreciate vocal support from the stands, playing with aggression and trying to leave his mark on the opponent and the game. Timo Werner also appeared fired up by chants of "Timo, Timo!" It must have been welcome backing for the striker after a difficult debut season in English football.
Maybe it was the fans; maybe it was still-fresh memories of the FA Cup final loss last weekend; maybe it was a combination of the two. Whatever it was, Chelsea looked up for this game. In the first 10 minutes they barely let their visitors have a sniff of the action, dominating possession (a 69% share) and taking four shots to Leicester's zero. They played at a high tempo and their frontmen looked sharp, combining quickly with support from N'Golo Kante, who made some excellent third-man runs to receive lay-offs and drive forward (before being brought off with an injury just past the half-hour mark).
For their part, despite what their 5-4-1 defensive setup might have looked like on paper, Leicester were not conservative in approach. Ayoze Perez and James Maddison played narrow alongside Jamie Vardy, attempting to block passes through central midfield before putting pressure on Chelsea's outside backs on sideways passes. Behind them, Youri Tielemans stepped up to mark Jorginho, while the central defensive three of Timothy Castagne, Wesley Fofana and Caglar Soyuncu were aggressive in tracking their men, staying close to Werner, Mason Mount and Christian Pulisic when they moved between the lines.
The basic idea for Leicester was to go man-to-man in midfield and defence with compact screening and high pressure from the front three. But it didn't work so well in practise as it may have figured in theory. Chelsea were able to retain the ball quite easily despite this pressure, with Thomas Tuchel's selection of Reece James as one of the outside backs a peculiar choice made sensible considering how the game panned out. Under pressure from Maddison, James had the composure and accuracy to feed long balls over the top or in the channel for Pulisic to get in behind or go one-versus-one against the slower Soyuncu. He attempted more passes than anyone else in this game (84), completing 93% of them.
Chelsea were consistently able to get their central midfielders on the ball in different ways. Jorginho usually received inside from Cesar Azpilicueta after Chelsea went outside to Cesar Azpilicueta at right wing-back before coming back in. Tielemans didn't always want to follow Jorginho in these situations, fearing he might wander too far out of position and compromise Leicester's defensive organisation. Kante, as aforementioned, made some great third-man runs to get on the ball in more advanced areas. And his replacement, Mateo Kovacic, tended to drift wide left to get free outside of Leicester's pressure. From there, he could take the ball and face play, then go for a dribble or pass forward.
Another issue for Leicester was that Chelsea regularly penetrated through their pressure, bypassing two lines of defence and finding their frontmen with passes to feet. Generally, Leicester's centre-backs were tight enough to stop this from becoming a bigger problem, pressuring, tackling or fouling to stop the attack from going any further. But there were times where Castange, Fofana and Soyuncu, didn't quite get close enough and Chelsea's attackers could combine with each other to work shooting opportunities in and around the box.
Chelsea found ways to bring the ball forward on the ground to set up controlled attacks, and worked Kasper Schmeichel from inside the box several times, forcing the Dane into some great saves. There were other dangerous moments, too, such as when Werner beat Tielemans to the ball in the penalty area only to be kicked by the Belgian. Somehow, the officials didn't spot the incident and no penalty was awarded.
After their high-tempo start, frenzy of shots and threatening passages of play led to no goals, there was concern that perhaps Chelsea had failed to capitalise at their peak. Then, they found a way thanks to a corner kick.
In the first half, Leicester failed to deal with an in-swinger to the front post for Azpilicueta to flick on for teammates attacking the centre and far-post areas. Werner put the ball in the net, but his strike was disallowed after it was found he had bundled the ball in not with his head, but with his hand. Leicester didn't heed that warning, and two minutes into the second half the same routine led to a goal - in-swinging corner, Azpilicueta front-post run and flick-on, teammate attacks to bundle in. This time Rudiger got on the end of the flick-on, scoring fairly with his upper thigh.
Chelsea's fortunes were turning, and they got another bit of luck past the hour when Werner was unnecessarily fouled by Fofana as he was running away from goal and out of the box. This time the penalty was awarded, which Jorginho dispatched cooly past Schmeichel to make it 2-0.
Of course, just when it looked like Chelsea had figured everything out, they gave their opponents a way back into the game. Finally, Leicester's pressure told, leading to a mistake in build-up by Kovacic. One pass later and Kelechi Iheanacho, introduced in place of Maddison, had a clear view of goal, slotting into the bottom-right corner.
At that point, Chelsea lost a bit of composure. Up until the 75th minute they enjoyed 61% of possession and out-shot Leicester 14 to three. In the 15 minutes plus stoppage time that followed, they enjoyed just 45% of possession and shot just three times to Leicester's four. There was more needless long punting, less play through midfield, and Leicester gained a foothold. Maybe having fans back in the stadium was a double-edged sword? Now, rather than enjoying the home support, Chelsea's players were feeling their fans' growing anxieties. Leicester got their equalising chance, only for Perez to blast over the bar.
Chelsea may have struggled late on, but on the whole they were deserving of the three points. Leicester came with a plan to press, but Chelsea cut through them and created enough to warrant the win as Tuchel evened things up with Brendan Rodgers after the FA Cup final defeat. The season isn't done just yet, but here Chelsea gained the upper-hand in the race for Champions League football.
