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Five lessons from Chelsea vs Swansea

Telegraph Sport’s Alistair Tweedale gives his take on Chelsea’s 2-2 draw against Swansea in their opening match of the season. Among the takeaways from the encounter at Stamford Bridge: Chelsea need new attacking inspiration, Swansea’s front three look formidable and Mourinho needs to help Falcao rediscover his winning form.

Eden Hazard (right) was decidedly anonymous for much of the game, while Jefferson Montero proved to be a threat to Chelsea throughout. Photo: Getty Images

Eden Hazard (right) was decidedly anonymous for much of the game, while Jefferson Montero proved to be a threat to Chelsea throughout. Photo: Getty Images

Telegraph Sport’s Alistair Tweedale gives his take on Chelsea’s 2-2 draw against Swansea in their opening match of the season. Among the takeaways from the encounter at Stamford Bridge: Chelsea need new attacking inspiration, Swansea’s front three look formidable and Mourinho needs to help Falcao rediscover his winning form.

Chelsea need new attacking inspiration

Much was made of Chelsea’s limp performances in pre-season, in particular in their Community Shield defeat at Wembley against title rivals Arsenal, and once again here, they looked bereft of ideas going forward. They scored twice in the first half, but neither goal was crafted by Chelsea genius, but was, instead, the result of fortune.

Oscar’s crossed free kick simply evaded everyone before Willian’s deflected ball into the box looped over Lukasz Fabianski, and the Pole was barely troubled all afternoon, with Chelsea hardly mustering a clear-cut goal-scoring opportunity. Thibaut Courtois and then Asmir Begovic had much more to do at the other end.

Eden Hazard was decidedly anonymous for much of the game, and Oscar contributed little more than his rather lucky goal. Jose Mourinho clearly does not trust Juan Cuadrado or Victor Moses, and he could really have done with someone to make a difference from the bench. Maybe a new signing is necessary.

Swansea have a formidable attack of their own

Jefferson Montero was a threat throughout, constantly causing the usually so cool Branislav Ivanovic all kinds of problems, while Bafetimbi Gomis genuinely looks like he could fill the void left by Wilfried Bony’s departure to Manchester City.

Gomis scored one goal and had another disallowed, and also played a significant part in Andre Ayew’s strike, forcing a good save from Courtois.

Garry Monk has pace in abundance up front, and his players looked like they could trouble any defence, based on this performance. Substitutes Wayne Routledge and Eder showed that there is depth there, too.

Ayew is a real coup

Ayew was considered quite the signing when Swansea snapped him up this summer from under Tottenham’s nose, and he showed a great deal of quality on his Premier League debut here. He was exceptionally calm in taking his time to control the ball inside the Chelsea penalty area before his goal, and ran tirelessly throughout to help maintain the defensive shape that Monk considers so important.

He has a lot to contribute and could help Swansea make the step up to challenging for a Europa League spot this season.

Mourinho needs to work his magic on Falcao — and soon

The hope when Mourinho signed Radamel Falcao on loan for the season was that he could fix a striker who struggled terribly last season, but early signs indicate that he has not had much luck in that department just yet.

The Colombian was poor at Wembley last week and a clearly half-fit Diego Costa was preferred to him for this fixture. When Falcao did appear, it was with only six minutes remaining, but when one half-decent chance did fall his way, he scuffed it tamely towards goal.

He is without a goal since January and looks a shadow of his former self, and with Costa’s hamstrings dodgy to say the least, it would be of huge significance if Falcao could rediscover his form of old. That looks a long way off for now, though.

Chelsea have defensive problems

So much of Chelsea’s success last season was built on their phenomenal defence, but they wobbled terribly here, lacking the confidence and assurance they had in abundance last term. The personnel are the same as last year, but they did not look comfortable when Swansea attacked with pace in this game.

There is no reason to suddenly start accusing John Terry of being past it, or say that Mourinho made the wrong goalkeeping choice in opting for Courtois, but there was a fragility and openness to Chelsea’s defence that will ring alarm bells for the manager.

They will not win the league if they defend like this all season, and will need to be better organised in future. Luckily for Chelsea, they have in Terry the best man possible to run things at the back.

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH

 

Alistair Tweedale is Telegraph Sport’s data journalist.

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