Calum McFarlane has his first win as interim head coach — on his third attempt, in now his second stint — and he’s hoping that it will prove a momentous one indeed. Chelsea have been in historically bad form over the past many weeks, but we still have six games left (five in the league and one in the FA Cup: the final itself) and we still some hope of achieving European qualification (at least the Europa League).
Those may be some bold intentions, perhaps a bit too bold even based on just this one
game, but it’s good to still be aiming high.
“It was important to get the win. […] It was important to break the momentum and the form that we were in. And I thought we were confident that we would do that today, and I think that completely changes the feel within the group […] and gives us confidence going into the next five games. [Of course] we want to win every single game from now to the end of the season, as you do in any season. [We] want to do it for ourselves, we want to do it for the fans and the club, everyone. A massive competition in the FA Cup, historic, and we want to win the final and win every Premier League game remaining.”
It wasn’t exactly a spectacular performance from the Blues on a glorious Wembley afternoon, but it was solid enough and that’s something we haven’t been able to say too often of late against top flight opposition. We still needed a couple spectacular saves from Bob and our chance creation overall was quite lacking (0.39 xG on just eight shots and two on target; and just 0.05 xG after we scored halfway through the first half), but we would see out the clean sheet relatively comfortably and avoid any sort of self-sabotage in the meantime (including not messing around with the ball at the back needlessly). Baby steps.
And solid is something you can build on. Obviously, there isn’t much left of the season iself, but if we have to go back to the basics, we need to start with a foundation.
That was precisely the point behind some of McFarlene’s tactical choices, including at the back.
“[Giving Tosin the start] was one of the most difficult decisions in the preparation for this game, because Jorrel Hato has been probably our best player over the last five, six games. But I decided to go with Tosin, mainly down to the Dominic Calvert-Lewin threat, and probably being the best match-up to defend that. Also set-pieces is a massive part of their game, Tosin’s a great leader, a great character, I fully trust Jorrel, and Jorrel could have played in this game, as could Wesley Fofana, so you make decisions as a manager, and you hope you get them right, and I thought Tosin was exceptional today.”
-Calum McFarlane; source: Football.London
Let’s hope we can press a few more of the correct buttons in the remaining weeks ahead.
