It was hard not to grin from ear to ear after seeing Chelsea defeat Sheffield United 4-1 on Saturday. Even Frank Lampard couldn’t conceal his pleasure at what he’d witnessed when cameras focused on the Blues boss in the second half, minutes after Thiago Silva scored his first for the club.
Victory at Stamford Bridge wasn’t the West London club’s widest margin of triumph in this season’s Premier League — that was a 4-0 defeat of Crystal Palace in early October — but success in gameweek eight was probably better than what was witnessed against the Eagles weeks ago.
The beaming smiles at full-time were largely due to the performance of the team against a Sheffield side that never makes it easy against any opponent, especially the top teams. The near-perfect Chelsea display was aided by Hakim Ziyech, who gave his best showing yet in his short Blues career to date against Chris Wilder’s men.
Having teased what he’s capable of in his maiden start for the 2012 Champions League winners in a 4-0 win over Krasnodar, the Morocco superstar then followed that up with a goal and assist on his first Premier League start against Burnley in round seven of the English top flight.
Still, there was a feeling that the North African had more in his locker...and he showed that against the Blades at Stamford Bridge on Saturday. It’s the sort of performance supporters would have loved to witness in the flesh, and it’s a shame there weren’t any at the Bridge on Saturday.
The scary thing for Premier League defences, however, is that Ziyech’s almost-excellent performance wasn’t even the best he has to offer. Against the Blades, the wide playmaker registered two assists and could have set up another but Timo Werner contrived to narrowly miss having been played through by the former Ajax man.
In total, Ziyech fashioned out six chances for Lampard’s men in their 4-1 success — the highest volume of key passes an individual has managed in 90 minutes so far in 2020/21 — with three falling into the ‘big chance’ bracket. He’s now created four clear-cut chances in total, ranking top in the Chelsea team, and four behind Harry Kane, despite playing significantly fewer minutes.
Lampard has constantly spoken about building relationships across the side since the start of the campaign and the Moroccan already looks to be combining well with teammates in and out of possession. Against the Blades, Ziyech and Reece James looked to be working well together, picking their moments to either stay wide together or hug the touchline while the other stayed narrow.
The Blues boss isn’t praised for his tactics like Pep Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp or even Mikel Arteta but the club’s shape at times in their build-up was striking. With the visitors putting a plethora of men behind the ball, the West London side tended to attack with five players and defend with as many, with their structure often resembling a 2-3-5.
Given Ben Chilwell’s tendency to push forward, Mason Mount dropped deeper to mitigate for the wide defender’s forays into the final third, with N’Golo Kante central and Reece James wide on the right.
Here, the shape morphed briefly into what resembles a 2-4-4 with Mount sending a diagonal to Ziyech. This move led to the corner from which Chelsea scored their second. #CFC pic.twitter.com/52sTgix6gT
— Seye Omidiora (@theReal_SeyE) November 9, 2020
Moments before Chelsea’s second, though, there was a little tweak to this system. Chilwell dropped slightly deeper along with Mount and Kante, who temporarily became a midfield partnership, with James tucked in narrower on the right, and the home side’s shape briefly changed to a 2-4-4.
Ziyech had drifted out wide and upon receiving a pin-point Mount diagonal played in the underlapping James whose goal-bound low cross nearly deceived Aaron Ramsdale. From the resulting corner, the Wizard of Amsterdam set up Chilwell with an amazing trademark cross to the back post as the Blues turned the game around.
The Morocco star was also involved in the hosts’ equalizer as well, ignoring the easy backward pass to Kurt Zouma. Instead, he played it forward for Mateo Kovacic whose cut-back found Tammy Abraham to level.
Unsurprisingly, the playmaker led the way for key passes, progressive passes (10) and passes into the penalty area (four). Only Kante outdid the Moroccan for completed passes sent into the final third throughout the 90 minutes (8-7) but this comes with the caveat that the Frenchman had 17 more touches than the ex-Ajax man.
A staggering nine shot-creating actions was four higher than Abraham and one more than the total SCAs for Sheffield’s players combined, while three goal-creating actions was also top for the Blues.
Despite a pair of unsuccessful attempts to find Werner and Chilwell in the 17th and 19th minute respectively, Ziyech didn’t hide, rather he kept trying things in typical fashion to carry Chelsea to arguably their most-impressive showing so far in 20/21.
Lampard’s men had Expected Goals of 2.8, the highest they’ve managed in the league this season and higher than their xG vs Palace (2.51) and 3-0 success over Burnley (1.23). Putting it into greater context, two of the Blues’ goals vs their cross-town rivals came from penalties — a spot-kick carries a 0.76 xG value — meaning the West London outfit had non-penalty Expected Goals of 0.99 vs Roy Hodgson’s men.
Against the Blades, however, Chelsea created a high volume of chances from open play and also limited Wilder’s usually resolute outfit — who narrowly lost 2-1 at Liverpool after probably deserving more on the balance of play and falling to a 1-0 defeat by Man City — with Ziyech producing a performance of genuine quality.
Lampard may not admit this openly as he continues to preach the need to improve in public, and most definitely in private, but a strange season means the five-time Premier League champions could actually contend for their sixth title this term.
Having been backed in the summer, doubts remained over the club’s record scorer finding the right balance.
The dominating performances of Edouard Mendy in goal immediately gave Chelsea a solid foundation upon which to build, and, with the evidence of recent showings, the attacking players now seem to be dovetailing successfully.
As for Ziyech, there were pre-season questions about the maverick pulling anywhere close to his Eredivisie numbers in the English league after joining.
Indeed, with glowing performances like Saturday's, the playmaker is already answering those queries and silencing doubters who argued he didn’t have the physicality to thrive in England.
This Chelsea side is beginning to take shape and Ziyech is at the centre of Lampard's Blues' evolution.
Get ready Premier League, there appears to be a new sheriff in town!