“It’s always about balance,” said Mauricio Pochettino before his Chelsea team faced Everton at Stamford Bridge on Monday.
“If we want to attack and create chances, sometimes we need to take risks. The problem now is getting the right balance between these two (attacking and defensive phases).”
Chelsea might have been a picture of inconsistency coming into the game, with just one Premier League clean sheet in their previous 13 games, but they duly provided their most comprehensive performance of the season — a 6-0 victory that was their biggest in the league since April 2022.
Cole Palmer will unquestionably get the plaudits for a four-goal haul that now puts him as the joint-top scorer in the 2023-24 Premier League with 20, alongside his former Manchester City team-mate Erling Haaland.
But there was more at play than just one brilliant individual performance. Palmer was able to thrive in pockets of space often thanks to Chelsea’s pace and directness out wide.
Monday was the first time Noni Madueke and Mykhailo Mudryk had started together in the Premier League this season, and judging by the damage that Chelsea inflicted on Everton, you suspect it won’t be the last.
Throw in the pace of Nicolas Jackson ahead of him, and Palmer had runners all around — allowing him to float into dangerous areas while his team-mates caused chaos.
Quite terrifyingly for Everton defenders, and supporters, such was Chelsea’s danger in attack that Palmer could have scored even more goals on the night…
Palmer had opportunities to score before making it 1-0 on 13 minutes.
With four minutes on the clock, Madueke drives forward and attracts a load of Everton players with a mazy run. As he gets to the byline, his pass is cut out — but look at Palmer’s run across to the front post (slide 3) where he gets across James Tarkowski to receive the ball (slide 4).
This sequence comes to nothing, but it was an early warning that Madueke’s pace and Palmer’s movement were going to be a threat all game.
Just two minutes later, Madueke has a similar situation as he again drives to the byline — this time attracting three Everton players towards him as Malo Gusto supports on the overlap. On this occasion, he does fire a ball across the box but no team-mate is able to get on the end of it.
Rather than attack the front post, Palmer recognises where the space is for a cutback opportunity by the penalty spot. If it had been a better pass, he would have had a clear sight of goal.
Palmer’s first goal was a free-flowing move that The Athletic has analysed in detail here — with superb skill from him to cap off a delightful team sequence.
Crucially, it was a sequence that came down Chelsea’s right, as so many of their attacking plays did across the whole game. With Palmer frequently drifting over to combine with Madueke and Gusto, an overwhelming majority of Chelsea’s attacking touches (47 per cent) happened on that side of the pitch.
Chelsea’s wide men were scything through Everton’s back line for a lot of the first half, and Palmer should have had a second goal after 15 minutes, when Madueke’s direct run and neat exchange with Mudryk led to a cross aimed for the England forward. He is on hand to tap into an empty net if the ball isn’t marginally behind him.
Chelsea’s left flank did show equal threat to help Palmer score his second, with Mudryk using his speed to charge to the byline and pull the ball back for Jackson to have the initial shot.
The only man sensing the danger to pick up on the rebound? Ice-cold Palmer, of course.
Mudryk’s threat grew in the second half as he saw so much space ahead of him.
Shortly after the half-time break, the Ukraine international drove through the heart of the pitch to release Palmer who made a delicious run across the defender.
Having already scored a hat-trick, it is another big chance for Palmer, but his shot is straight at Jordan Pickford. Once again, he had the piercing runs of his wide forwards to thank for the chance.
What this might mean for Raheem Sterling’s hopes of getting back into the starting XI is a conversation for another day, but it was clear Pochettino’s youthful wingers did their chances of extended spells in the side no harm.
That is, of course, other than Madueke’s penalty antics which did distract fans from what was an otherwise impressive performance — even though the England Under-21 international was the one to win the spot kick with his quick feet in the box.
One man has earned the attention of Chelsea supporters after another dazzling performance at home, and rightly so. Chelsea have scored 10 goals across the past two home league games — and Palmer has seven of them.
Sure, we could continue to wax lyrical about the fact Palmer became the first Chelsea player to score in seven successive Premier League appearances at Stamford Bridge. We could also discuss how he is only the second man to score a hat-trick in back-to-back home Premier League matches there, after Didier Drogba in 2010.
But the importance of Chelsea’s wide men must be acknowledged in how Palmer was able to flourish on Monday night.
Before the Everton match, Pochettino’s comments about balance were referring to Chelsea’s performances in both boxes. In Madueke and Mudryk, he might have just found a perfect balance across each flank.
