Right then, I’ll be off. Here’s the match report again. Bye!
And a report on PSG 1-2 Manchester United, by way of a bonus:
Updated
Lampard is asked whether his side can build on this performance against Manchester United at the weekend. “They might be building on their performance as well,” he says.
1 - In what was his 62nd game in charge, tonight was Frank Lampard's first goalless draw as Chelsea manager, and his first 0-0 overall as a manager since March 2019 with Derby County against Stoke City. Anomaly. #CHESEV pic.twitter.com/aEvodPCuFT
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) October 20, 2020
Frank Lampard is pretty pleased with his side’s point:
[The clean sheet is] something you strive for always. Thiago showed experience and quality. Mendy had one save to make and he made it. It was a very organised defensive performance from us. And they’re very good, which is why they’ve been so successful in the last few years. The work is a constant. You analyse the opposition and the threats they’re going to give you which with Sevilla was crosses and getting balls in the box. You might expect a team from La Liga to try and play a lot of passes through the lines, I think they tried a lot of crosses.
We dealt with all the things they threw at us. We had a few moments ourselves as well. It was cagey, a matter of two really good teams cancelling each other out in the first game, and we take the point and move on. I think both teams will be pretty happy with that. We’re going to get better, I keep saying the same thing, we haven’t had the personnel in there, playing regularly, getting relationships, working off each other. The more we do that, we’ll get better naturally.
Jacob Steinberg has filed his match report from Stanford Bridge:
At least Chelsea managed to stand tall at the back. Yet while there were no defensive calamities from Frank Lampard’s side, there was precious little inspiration at the other end. Low on creativity in the final third and short on fluency in possession, Chelsea made few chances and ended up with more questions than answers after a tough encounter with Sevilla.
In the end a goalless draw with a side as awkward Sevilla was hardly the worst way for Chelsea to open their Champions League campaign. The Europa League winners brought all their European know-how to west London and might have won had they shown more conviction, leaving Chelsea content with a rare clean sheet, albeit with questions to ponder about where to fit their expensive new signings into their attack.
Much more here:
Luuk de Jong seems slightly disappointed:
I think when you say at the beginning of the game, ‘You’re going to draw this game against Chelsea,’ of course you’re going to be happy, but we always want to win the game. We had the opportunities to win. I think overall we were the stronger team today. I think we defended well but Chelsea the same, they didn’t give away a lot of chances. We could have won the game, but we’re happy with one point. Chelsea had a gameplan to stop our attacks, they prepared themselves good and that’s why we had a tough time finding the gaps and finding the opportunities. In the Champions League you don’t get a lot of chances and you have to be sharp.
Ben Chilwell is very pleased:
I think the important thing is the clean sheet. I think defensively as a team we were solid today, against a very good team. It would have been nice to get the win at home, but we’ll take the clean sheet. I think in general as a team, I wouldn’t say comfortable, but how organised we were, the whole team, the wingers, the midfielders all put a shift in. Defensively it was very good. When you keep conceding goals you’re going to get criticism, but today we showed that defensively we’re a good outfit. They’re one of the best teams in Europe, and to get a clean sheet against a very good attacking side was positive.
So this is how the teams stand in Group E. Very much how they stood a couple of hours ago, basically.
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Krasnodar | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2 | Rennes | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 3 | Chelsea | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 4 | Sevilla | 1 | 0 | 1 |
The other match in Group E was also drawn, with Krasnodar and Rennes tied 1-1.
Final score: Chelsea 0-0 Sevilla
90+4 mins: It’s all over! No goals, or many clear chances to score goals, or particularly difficult saves, but Chelsea will be chuffed with their defensive display.
Updated
90+3 mins: The throw bounces through to Mendy. They then win another on the other side, but don’t make anything of that one either.
90+2 mins: Chelsea get the corner clear, though Sevilla now have a throw-in.
90+1 mins: Eventually they do go forwards, and win themselves a corner. Before they can take it, Abraham comes on for Werner. He only has 150 seconds. Also, Callum Hudson-Odoi comes on for Pulisic.
90 mins: Sevilla pass the ball around the back four for an age, in no hurry whatsoever.
87 mins: Jordan gets booked for a foul on Pulisic. In the stands, Tammy Abraham is getting ready for 180 seconds or so of potentially decisive action.
83 mins: A good spell for Sevilla. Ocampos crosses, Thiago Silva just beats En-Nesyri to the ball, and the Brazilian then goes down with unspecified ache.
79 mins: A couple more changes for Valencia: Youssef En-Nesyri and Franco Vazquez are on, De Jong and Rakitic depart.
77 mins: Ziyech, on the right flank, gets an excellent crossing position but has to cut onto his left foot, allowing the defence crucial seconds to get set, and then overhits it anyway.
75 mins: Bad news for U2’s Adam Clayton, who’s playing for Birmingham at Carrow Road: he’s been sent off (in the 86th minute) and Norwich have scored (in the 87th).
72 mins: Sevilla win a corner, and De Jong wins the header, but it hits James and bounces to safety.
70 mins: This half has been much better than the last one. There has however been a disappointing lack of Chelsea/general defensive calamity.
66 mins: Close! Sevilla win a corner, and then another! The second is lifted over the melee to Jordan, who from 16 yards sends a dipping volley just over the bar!
64 mins: Another Chelsea change, as Kovacic comes on for Jorginho. Kante takes the armband.
64 mins: Chilwell gives Ocampos’s shirt a tug, and he’s in the book.
63 mins: Navas has sent in a couple of tasty crosses from the right in the last couple of minutes, but Chelsea have won the ball on both occasions.
62 mins: Chelsea make their first change, bringing Hakim Ziyech on for Mount.
59 mins: Save! James crosses from the right, Chilwell wins the header at the far post, but Bounou stops it.
58 mins: Elsewhere in Group E there have been two goals in Rennes: the home side took the lead in the 56th minute, and Krasnodar equalised three minutes later. Sevilla make another substitution, bringing Oliver Torres on for Suso.
56 mins: Chelsea do find Werner in space here, but sadly the space is 30 yards from goal. His shot dips nastily, but Bounou holds it all the same.
53 mins: Chelsea are having a promising spell, but they keep being unable to find Werner in space, and when they find Werner without space he is unable to find his own. Pulisic is back on the right again.
51 mins: Gudelj has a cut cheek, and has to leave the field for a while so someone can dab it lovingly with some cotton wool.
50 mins: Zouma wins the header again, but this time the ball goes way wide and Werner can’t quite keep it in play. Plus Nemanja Gudelj gets squished in a Zouma-Diego Carlos sandwich and goes down dazed.
49 mins: Pulisic has moved to the left, after spending the first half on the right, and looks happy about it. After winning that corner he sends in a dangerous cross, which eventually leads to another corner.
48 mins: Save! Chelsea win a corner, Zouma wins the header, but he sends it straight down the middle of goal and Bounou collects.
Updated
47 mins: The other Group E game, between Rennes and Krasnodar, is also goalless. There have been goals elsewhere, though, and here’s a report on the early kick-offs:
46 mins: Peeeeep! Sevilla get the second half under way.
The players are on their way back out. Both sides appear unchanged. The same is not true of Julen Lopetegui, who has taken off his red sweater.
“I bet Peter Oh would be happy to know that Adam Clayton just went over the Edge and received a yellow card for a bad foul on Lukas Rupp,” reports JR. “Still no score at Carrow Road.” At Carrow Road, like at Stamford Bridge, they still haven’t found the goal they’re looking for.
“The way in which Sevilla control the ball is not so short of a pristine Barça or City. With Madrid and the Catalans struggling, could we see them mount a challenge for LaLiga?” asks Roberto Álvarez. I don’t think Sevilla use the ball anything like as well as those two teams. I mean, they keep it well enough, but they are much less proactive about winning it and much less threatening when they’ve got it.
Half time: Chelsea 0-0 Sevilla
45+2 mins: And a chance at the other end! Pulisic plays the ball inside to Werner, a half-chance from the edge of the area, and he also completely miskicks. And that’s the end of the half!
45+1 mins: Save! Sevilla cross from the right, and Zouma completely mishits his attempt to Ocampos, whose shot is saved by Mendy.
45+1 mins: The referee is only going to put up with one more minute of this.
44 mins: Chance! Acuna collects the ball after it bounces back into play off the corner flag, dances past Pulisic and delivers a lovely cross to the far post, where Suso heads wide.
42 mins: Another booking, this for Marcos Acuna for pulling Pulisic’s shirt.
39 mins: This game absolutely reeks of goallessness, if with occasional outbreaks of encouragement.
36 mins: Mount gets booked, for tugging Suso’s shirt. Suso was also tugging his, though it’s hard to see why as if he had got free he was in a good position to do some damage.
Updated
33 mins: Joan Jordan has come on to replace Sergi Gomez. Jordan has started three of their four league games this season as well as the Uefa Super Cup, all in central midfield.
32 mins: That might be Sergi Gomez’s last touch, because the Sevilla centre-back is on the floor and feeling his right hamstring.
31 mins: Save! James crosses from the right, and it bounces off Diego Carlos, off Sergi Gomez and falls to Werner, who controls and hits a hurried shot goalwards, but it’s an easy stop for Bounou.
29 mins: And Werner is nearly through again! Pulisic is a little late, though, and the German is thus a foot or two offside, and anyway his touch in taking it past Bounou was a little overheavy and the ball ran off the field.
Updated
28 mins: Chelsea get the ball and thump it forward, and had it bounced a little more kindly Werner would have been through. It didn’t, though. That would have shown Sevilla where to put their gazillion-pass moves.
26 mins: Sevilla put together a gazillion-pass move, but eventually Suso overhits a pretty straightforward ball and Chelsea have a goal kick.
22 mins: Ocampos finds space from a throw-in again. For all their possession Sevilla have only really threatened at restarts, but they are doing those quite well.
20 mins: In fact the ball had deflected off Zouma, and Mendy did well to fling out a paw before it bounced past him.
18 mins: Save! The free-kick is tossed into the box, headed goalwards, and Mendy awkwardly palms it away!
Updated
18 mins: Jorginho dices with disaster, raising his boot to win a bouncing ball but getting only Rakitic when the Croatian gets there first. The referee keeps his cards in his pocket.
17 mins: Chelsea have the ball for a while, work it right, central and left as they seek a gap in the Sevilla defence, and eventually Mount stumbles and the away side take it back.
14 mins: Yellow card! Jorginho gives the ball away to Ocampos, realises that the Sevilla man would have the entire Chelsea right to run into so hauls him down. As bookingy a booking as you’ll ever see.
Updated
13 mins: Sevilla have had 61% of possession in these early stages. When they get the ball they seem in absolutely no hurry to do anything with it.
10 mins: Pulisic picks up the ball in the centre circle, but he goes on to pretty much run into Mount and Werner, the three of them ending up far too close together.
8 mins: Sevilla are keeping the ball well now, having eradicated their silly-giving-away habit, but Chelsea are defending their area well.
6 mins: A nice move from Chelsea, which ends with Werner passing wide to James, whose low first-time cross arrows straight into the corridor of uncertainty, but Diego Carlos gets to it first and deals with it well.
3 mins: Shot! From a Sevilla throw-in De Jong controls and plays in Ocampos, who lashes a shot wide of the near post! He was offside, to be fair.
2 mins: Sevilla have given the ball away in dangerous areas twice already, but have got away with it. Not a good habit, all the same.
1 min: I can report that Julen Lopetegui is wearing the reddest sweater conceivable. It is shockingly red.
1 min: Peeeeeep! The game is on!
It’s a big night for nearly members of U2: as Peter Oh points out, Bounou is playing for Sevilla while Adam Clayton turns out for Birmingham City at Norwich.
📋🔵 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐗𝐈.
— Birmingham City FC (@BCFC) October 20, 2020
◼️ Jukey still unavailable. @jonleko1 makes his first start for #BCFC.
Brought to you by @BoyleSports.
The players are gathering in the tunnel and preparing for action, now just five minutes away.
Here’s a news story on the surprises from the Premier League squad lists:
The lists themselves are available here.
Frank Lampard has had a pre-match chat, largely about Thiago Silva and defensive security:
We haven’t had a chance to have Thiago in our team much, so it’s great to have his experience and quality back in. Same with Mendy, and Reece James, it’s probably the most difficult area of the pitch for me. They’re changes to keep us secure and Reece can offer us something going forward as well. Against a team at this level you don’t have it all your own way, there will be moments when you have to defend, be organised and suffer and Thiago’s experience will be great for us. It’s something we looked at last year, we know we conceded too many goals, and you bring players in to make differences. Hopefully we will see how strong we can be as a defensive unit improve.
A peek inside the Stamford Bridge dressing-rooms. In Chelsea’s: lovingly upholstered seating, kits on hangers and mood lighting:
In Sevilla’s, one central bench, kits wherever there’s space and some random bar stools:
📸 #SevillaFC have their kits ready at Stamford Bridge! ⚪️🔴#WeareSevilla #NeverSurrender #UCL pic.twitter.com/xGM2aOJoWj
— Sevilla FC (@SevillaFC_ENG) October 20, 2020
“Pulisic’s middle name is Mate, and Zouma’s is Happy,” notes Peter Oh. “Maybe this, and not Lampard’s managerial skills, explains the feel-good factor in the Chelsea camp!” That is some optimistic middle-naming from those future Chelsea parents.
Petr Cech is actually eight months younger than Willy Caballero. Chelsea have the Premier League’s two oldest players in their squad.
In other news, the Premier League has just published this season’s final 25-man squads. Chelsea’s contains one surprising if familiar name (for avoidance of doubt, he’s the sixth name on the list):
The teams!
Team news is in, and it looks like this:
Chelsea: Mendy, James, Thiago Silva, Zouma, Chilwell, Jorginho, Kante, Pulisic, Havertz, Mount, Werner. Subs: Arrizabalaga, Rudiger, Christensen, Abraham, Caballero, Tomori, Kovacic, Giroud, Hudson-Odoi, Ziyech, Azpilicueta, Emerson Palmieri.
Sevilla: Bounou, Jesus Navas, Sergi Gomez, Diego Carlos, Acuna, Rakitic, Fernando, Gudelj, Suso, de Jong, Ocampos. Subs: Vaclik, Rekik, Jordan, Munir, Rodriguez, En-Nesyri, Escudero, Torres, Vazquez, Carlos Fernandez.
Referee: Davide Massa.
Hello world!
“Sometimes we feel like we have to score three or four each game,” Cesar Azpilicueta said before this match, which is on the one hand a savage indictment of the standard of defending that he has been a part of this season, and on the other hand extremely encouraging for neutrals. So far this season Chelsea have scored 3, 0, 6, 3, 1, 4 and 3, and conceded 1, 2, 0, 3, 1, 0 and 3. According to official Premier League statistics 13 players have been guilty of errors that led directly to goals so far this season and Chelsea are responsible for nearly 25% of them, and a third of the goals thereby conceded, with Kai Havertz and Thiago Silva on one apiece and poor Kepa Arrizabalaga on three (the latter was expected to start this game, but word is that Edouard Mendy will be fit). “I wouldn’t say my DNA is to be a natural attacking manager,” says Frank Lampard, disappointingly, but then he’s also the man who decided he needed Werner, Havertz and Ziyech as well as Mount, Pulisic, Abraham and Giroud, so believe what you want.
Sevilla however are disconcertingly solid. They have scored 1, 3, 1, 1, 0 in their five games so far this season, and conceded 2, 1, 0, 1, 1. Their defeat at Granada on Saturday was their first in the league since February. Interesting fact: Sevilla’s first two matches against English teams in European competition came in the 2005-06 Uefa Cup, a relatively brief 15 years ago, and were against Bolton and Middlesbrough. Enjoy your team’s success while it lasts, kids (if your team is enjoying success, obviously).
Anyway, welcome. Team news should be through shortly. Send me funny emails. Thanks.
