Swindon Town 0-2 Chelsea - Reaction and Analysis

Chelsea breezed past Swindon Town in the Capital One Cup

Chelsea advanced to the fourth round of the Capital One Cup by comfortably beating 3rd division side Swindon Town 0-2. The Blues were largely untroubled for most of the match, although injuries to both Marco van Ginkel and Ramires mean that Mourinho is slightly short in numbers in midfield, at least for the moment.

Mourinho fielded, what could be considered a ‘reserve’ side, as he made a good number of changes to the team that faced and beat Fulham on the weekend (with one eye no doubt on the clash against Spurs during the weekend). Chelsea’s squad depth was on show on the night, and even their so-called second side proved to be too much for Swindon to handle.

Tactical analysis

As has been the case with Chelsea recently, the emphasis was on pass and move football which looked to create chances by keeping possession and patiently breaking down the opposition. Given the quality of the opposition, Chelsea’s plan worked very well and they were able to create several chances and were 0-2 up by half time itself.

Fernando Torres put in a Man of the Match performance, scoring one goal and assisting the other. His finishing still seemed slightly off par but he put in a shift by pressing hard whenever he could and making some good runs with the ball.

Juan Mata put in a decent performance too. The spotlight was most definitely on the two-time Chelsea Player of the Year, who had been publicly challenged by Jose Mourinho to bring about certain changes to his game in order to establish himself as a central focus in his plans.

The change in Mata’s game was quite evident. Whenever Chelsea didn’t have possession, he looked to press the opposition in an attempt to win back possession quickly. He also created a couple of decent chances and was awarded the assist for Torres’ opening goal.

Willian put in a decent shift as well, although his attacking contribution was slightly stifled and his shooting seemed a bit wayward. However, Kevin de Bruyne put in a poor performance as he could not influence the game in any way and his work-rate was pretty average. He was eventually subbed off in the second half and it doesn’t seem like he’s done enough to show Mourinho that he deserves to a be a regular starter just yet.

Defensively, Cesar Azpilicueta and Ryan Bertrand put in solid shifts at right-back and left-back, respectively. David Luiz was less than convincing, and so was Gary Cahill. However, Swindon didn’t do enough to trouble the Chelsea defence.

Problem areas

There were hardly any blemishes to write home about, but the finishing was once again questionable. Plenty of chances were created but most were spurned. A better side might well punish Chelsea for the type of lackluster finishing that was on display last night.

Conclusion 

Chelsea did exactly what was expected of them and while they would have liked to have scored a few more goals, they did enough to get the job done. The side are still a work-in-progress and results are what’s important to them at the moment.