Chelsea’s £150M attack involves existence as Blues present themselves Champions League contenders

Match statistics: Chelsea 2-0 Atletico Madrid

Kai Havertz to Timo Werner to Hakim Ziyech.

It’s the aggregate many Chelsea followers — and board participants — had been dreaming of over the summer as the Blues spent in some distance extra than £150 million ($209 million) to upgrade their attack.

And even supposing it must also just like taken the trio till mid-March to combine for a huge, match-successful moment, the magnificence of Ziyech’s goal against Atletico Madrid used to be worth the wait.

After N’Golo Kante carried out a clearance from a corner, it used to be Havertz who performed a scrumptious clipped pass into Werner’s route, who in flip drove into dwelling earlier than picking out Ziyech on the some distance put up for a straightforward stop.

Chelsea broke the bank over the summer in a converse to not glorious danger on the stop of the Premier League desk, but also within the Champions League, the set up its file has been underwhelming within the seasons since its 2012 triumph.

The journey within that side slowly dripped away, and it had glorious reached the quarterfinals once since, in 2014, earlier than this campaign.

But below Thomas Tuchel, the club already appears to be like to be like it must also just even be a power on the continent some other time, critically if its sizable-cash signings like sooner or later learned their feet.

Tuchel has introduced defensive solidity to the Blues, and so they’ve now long gone 597 minutes in all competitions with out conceding a goal following their 2-0 take over Diego Simeone’s side at Stamford Bridge.

But they’ve lacked magic going ahead, with the bulk of their attacking avid gamers composed suffering with a hangover from the final weeks of Frank Lampard’s tenure.

Perhaps it used to be fitting, then, that the man once dubbed “The Wizard of Amsterdam,” Ziyech, used to be the participant to destroy the deadlock in a game the set up Atletico had triggered Chelsea some early problems, most notably through Joao Felix.

The counterattack for the opener showed your whole guile, go and killer instinct that Chelsea has been lacking within the final third, and if it’s to actually danger Europe’s elite, this may per chance maybe per chance per chance need present extra of that to poke with its defensive prowess.

This used to be Ziyech’s first goal following a 20-game drought, whereas Havertz has netted lawful once in his final 25 video games and Werner twice in his final 27.

That is to not claim that they’ve not been playing properly of late, with Havertz apparently reborn as a “pretend nine”‘ and Werner taking a see some distance extra assured in most modern weeks than he did below Lampard.

The dilapidated RB Leipzig man’s uncooked statistics for his first season in England — 10 dreams and seven assists — scheme not peek too inappropriate, but the account round him continues to counsel he has flopped.

Right here, even supposing, he used to be a fixed likelihood, the exhaust of his go to salvage in on the back of an Atletico back line that’s not on the stage of the Diego Godin-led quartet of the mid-2010s.

Ziyech, meanwhile, used to be pulling out all his prone side motorway soccer programs as the sport went on, and Tuchel will hope the Morocco world shall be ready to retain this stage heading into the final lumber-in.

This take, which used to be capped off in distress time by Emerson Palmieri finishing off one more amazing counterattack, used to be per chance the handiest of Tuchel’s time with the club, and may per chance per chance per chance just give Roman Abramovich hope that he employed the comely man to bring domestic and continental glory back to west London.

Having proven tactical nous within the principle-leg take, the German boss one more time outcoached Simeone — the glorious-paid manager on the earth — within the return game as he turned the principle Chelsea manager to live unbeaten through their first 13 fits guilty.

No team will want to face his in-produce side when Friday’s quarterfinal draw is made, and having reached the final final season — albeit in uncommon conditions — he has journey of navigating a route through the knockout rounds.

Whereas that Paris Saint-Germain team used to be constructed through its attack, comely now Chelsea’s foundations are in its defense.

But if the Blues’ summer buys can produce on their efficiency right here, then with out warning Tuchel also can like a ahead line succesful of going one higher than Neymar and Kylian Mbappe in 2020.