5 Things Learned: Arsenal 4-0 Chelsea | Pre-Season

Chelsea suffered a 4-0 loss in the Florida Cup to Arsenal at the Camping World Stadium in Orlando on Sunday morning (UK).

Thomas Tuchel’s side suffered back-to-back defeats to end their pre-season tour of the United States as they now prepare to jet off back home to England.

A sluggish start from the Blues saw Mikel Arteta’s side quickly take control of the game, and Chelsea were rightly punished when Trevoh Chalobah handed the Gunners possession and Gabriel Jesus delicately chipped a helpless Edouard Mendy inside 15 minutes. 

Just 21 minutes later, the west London team were dealt another blow, Mendy’s poor clearance resulted in a brilliant move from Arsenal which was rounded off by a powerful bottom corner strike by Martin Odegaard. 

Mason Mount came closest in the first half for Chelsea, flicking the outside of the post with a wicked curling effort across the face of goal.

Half-time saw four changes made by a frustrated Tuchel, as they shifted into their more regular back three formation. 

In the second half there was an improvement, but Chelsea failed to create anything substantial.

Any hope of a comeback was crushed when Bukayo Saka tapped home after Mendy’s parried save from Granit Xhaka’s shot fell into his path yards out.

The misery was rounded off when Sambi Lokonga added a fourth in the final moments of the match.

The Blues have just one fixture remaining in pre-season and need to shake off this last result as they will now turn their focus towards the match against Udinese in the Dacia Arena in Italy next Friday.

Here are five things Absolute Chelsea learned from the pre-season fixture.

Here are five things Absolute Chelsea learned from the pre-season fixture.

1) Much to be worked on heading into the new season

Despite this being the third of four pre-season games the Blues play, there is still a huge amount of improvements that need to be made. The tempo was slow throughout and Chelsea could not find any sort of rhythm. While the Gunners deserve credit for their classy performance there are hardly any positives to take for Tuchel’s team. Arsenal toyed with their opponents, easing to victory against a lacklustre side. 

2) Attacking creativity and ruthlessness is extremely lacking

It was a woeful display all-round for Chelsea and going forward they offered hardly anything. Werner was hooked at the break after he failed to put a foot right in the opening 45 minutes and the other attackers were dismal too. Should Kai Havertz want to be the lead striker next season he is going to have to vastly improve on his performances in pre-season, against Arsenal he looked isolated and had no impact on the game. Raheem Sterling had good moments, but no one, including the substitutions, managed to help the Blues create anything clear cut that posed a threat to the goal. 

3) Sloppy mistakes need to be cut out

Chelsea were shocking in possession in the first half. The ball was constantly handed over to Arsenal and they capitalised on the Blues’ errors. Mendy’s distribution has been rightly questioned for a long time, and once again it cost Tuchel’s side a goal. The breakthrough in  the game also came from a Chelsea error, with Chalobah ceding possession far too easily. Last season this was a major problem in games for the Blues and it cost them any chance of competing with the likes of Manchester City and Liverpool. They simply cannot afford mistakes like this if they want to challenge on all fronts for trophies. 

4) Chelsea are more comfortable in a back three

In the first two games of pre-season Chelsea lined-up in their usual three-back formation, but Tuchel opted to start with a back four against Arsenal. The first half saw a shocking display from the Blues in this formation, and at half-time the change was made. While operating with four defenders could be successful for Tuchel’s side in the future, a lot of work is going to have to be put in for it to be effective. The safest option for now is having three central defenders and two wing-backs.

5) The Blues need more signings as Kalidou Koulibaly features and Sterling makes full debut

One positive that can be taken is that the two new signings have now both featured for Chelsea. Koulibaly made a superb sliding challenge to prevent Nicolas Pepe from adding yet more embarrassment to the scoreline and Sterling was one of the brighter players in the first half. With Todd Boehly in attendance, you can only hope that the performance and result tonight encourages him to get more transfers over the line.