What Chelsea must get used to this season

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That is the opinion of Blues legend Pat Nevin, who has defended Maurizio Sarri’s decision not to bring Cesc Fabregas on during Sunday’s draw with West Ham. Chelsea travelled to Greece last Thursday as they began their Europa League group stage campaign against PAOK Salonika.

And they did so off the back of five Premier League wins on the spin, during which they had played some scintillating football. PAOK sat back and made it difficult for Chelsea to have their way in a 1-0 win for Sarri’s side at Toumba Stadium.

Former Chelsea forward Nevin says his old side need to be ready to come up against similar tactics in the future. “A win away from home in the Europa League and another point on the road at West Ham should feel a little better than it actually does,” Nevin told Chelsea’s official website. “The Hammers like PAOK decided on a system and attitude that Chelsea will have to get used to this season.

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“They sat back very deep and close together in defence and played exclusively on the break. It nearly worked and Andriy Yarmolenko very nearly took all three points at the death. Considering the possession stats in Chelsea’s favour, as usual, it would have been seen as daylight robbery had we lost all three points and anyway, Alvaro Morata was desperately unlucky when Lucasz Fabianski’s face got in the way of his effort.

“They tried to close down Jorginho at every opportunity to negatively affect our new tempo and to be fair, even though the Blues had 72 per cent of the possession, West Ham did a pretty good job.

“Our lads did however look a little bit jaded, the extra spring or explosive burst of pace were a few percentage points below what they have been. The passing wasn’t quite as crisp and accurate as in other games but it is always tough when there is a wall of defenders up against you every time you get to the last third.

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“If you play our type of ultra-passing game, that passing must be of the highest quality.This is why coaches go on about quick passing specifically. If you allow well-organised opponents to get settled defensively they will always be hard to break down.

“Maurizio Sarri says getting his ideas across is still a learning process for the players and it is clear that there are still a few tweaks he might want to make to have the right effect in the longer term.

“Certainly breaking West Ham’s back line as they occasionally tried to play offside was something that could have worked better, even though we did almost get through a few times.

“There was one superb Jorginho pass near the end that Willian couldn’t get on target that reminded me of Cesc Fabregas at his best.”

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