When Kurt Zouma agreed a loan move at Everton at the start of the 2018-19 Premier League season, it looked as though Chelsea were about to let go of another failed prospect.
Having arrived at Stamford Bridge six years ago with huge promise shown in the French league with St Etienne, Zouma endured a rocky start to life in west London before eventually losing his place in the Blues side.
It was a knee injury suffered in early 2016 that derailed any hope of immediate further progress. That summer new Chelsea boss Antonio Conte signed David Luiz from PSG in a £30m deal and, when Zouma was finally fit to return to action, there was no place for him to occupy.
A loan move to Stoke followed but still there wasn’t an opening at the Bridge, and so the France international headed to Merseyside in a 2018 deadline day deal that smacked of a last resort for the Toffees, and antipathy from Conte’s side.
Thankfully for the London club, Zouma didn’t hang around at Goodison. After a second full season following his knee operation, the centre-back returned to the capital with renewed vigour and the backing of a new manager, Frank Lampard.
The defender has been a colossal presence ever since.
It’s no surprise the improvement in defensive solidity that Chelsea have enjoyed since Project Restart has come with the upturn in performances from their centre-back. Two weeks ago the stats showed Zouma had a 96 per cent win rate of aerial duels, the highest amongst Europe’s top leagues.
Alongside Thiago Silva – the veteran free signing from PSG in the summer – Chelsea have found a defensive solution that is currently keeping Antonio Rudiger on the bench.
And the machine was working smoothly on Sunday night against a Tottenham attack that has terrorised plenty of back lines already this season.
Harry Kane, the England striker with six career goals against Chelsea, barely had a sniff as the central partnership marshalled the edge of the area with sound reason. Steven Bergwijn was largely ineffective on the left for Spurs, while Son Heung-min failed to deliver the penetrating runs on goal the Korean has become famous for in north London.
And while plenty of praise is once again due to N’Golo Kante for his anchoring role across the midfield, it was Zouma and Silva who proved to be Chelsea’s bedrock here.
Ensuring the centre-back pairing runs smoothly isn’t an alien concept at Chelsea. Indeed, it was Lampard’s opposite number, Jose Mourinho, who masterminded the art of resolute defending when deploying John Terry and Ricardo Carvalho at the heart of defence during his first title-winning stint as Chelsea boss, with Lampard himself learning the managerial art from midfield.
Mourinho himself is trying to create a similar vibe at Spurs. Midfielder-come-defender Eirc Dier and his partner Toby Alderweireld – missing for this game through injury – is the Portuguese’s preferred set-up.
Yet even without the Belgian Spurs were primed to execute the defensive part of Mourinho’s gameplan at Stamford Bridge that we have seen so often during the manager’s career. They restricted Chelsea to a handful of chances, largely squandered by Tammy Abraham.
It was the same story at the other end but without even the chances to waste. A match that promised defensive solidity from the master and student of the art certainly delivered.
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from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3o4AiKc
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