Chelsea’s Radamel Falcao looked off the pace and out of sorts in his side’s defeat to Fiorentina just three days before the start of the Premier League season. Photograph: Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images
The most important rule of pre-season is never to attach too much meaning to friendlies and it would be a mistake to assume that the team who huffed and puffed in this forgettable defeat to Fiorentina in the International Champions Cup were the real Chelsea. They only subjected the Italians to their normal blast of intensity when they were almost at full strength in the final 30 minutes and to quote José Mourinho, the real football starts with the visit of Swansea City on Saturday.
Yet if Mourinho has concerns, the way Fiorentina exposed Chelsea’s lack of depth after an intriguingly quiet summer in the transfer market was troubling and the defence of their Premier League title will be fraught with difficulty if Diego Costa’s issues with his weak hamstrings do not improve. Chelsea laboured without him in Sunday’s defeat to Arsenal in the Community Shield and filling Costa’s boots will not be easy for Radamel Falcao when his appear to be made of lead.
Mourinho defended Falcao’s slow-motion performance and he was cryptic about Costa’s chances of being fit to play against Swansea.
“I don’t risk my reputation again,” he said. “You ask me before last weekend and I told you he is ready to play. I don’t know. I don’t risk to say yes. I don’t risk to say no. I will try to understand. It was a surprise for me he did not play on the weekend.” Watch this space.
Whether Chelsea were in dire need of another exercise in stretching their legs so close to the start of the new season was debatable. Mourinho reacted accordingly and turned to several of the lesser spotted members of his squad. John Terry was the only survivor from the team who started against Arsenal at Wembley and the Chelsea captain offered a vignette of why he is going strong at the age of 34 by giving it 110% in the warm-up, throwing himself into a lusty slide tackle during a game of keep-ball.
Eden Hazard and Cesc Fàbregas started on the bench but Stamford Bridge was packed despite the travel chaos caused by the tube strike; football is football and nothing keeps Londoners away from a dead rubber in this prestigious cup. This was an opportunity to catch a rare glimpse of Victor Moses in a blue shirt and three products from the academy, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Bertrand Traoré and Ola Aina, who may or may not one day be loaned to Vitesse Arnhem, the Dutch club with whom Chelsea have close ties.
Loftus-Cheek is the likeliest Chelsea youngster to feature in the first team in the coming season. Although his attitude was criticised by Mourinho at the start of the summer, the 19-year-old is highly thought of and he had Chelsea’s best moment of the first half when his shot was blocked after a powerful burst inside from the left.
However Chelsea played like a collection of strangers and Fiorentina, who finished fourth in Serie A last season, were slick. Paulo Sousa’s side were confident after beating Barcelona on Sunday and Matias Fernández, Matías Vecino and Khouma Babacar all threatened before Gonzalo Rodríguez scored the only goal in the 35th minute. Asmir Begovic was unfortunate that Marcos Alonso’s stinging shot from the left squirmed out of his grasp and Rodríguez was the first to the loose ball.
Chelsea made defensive changes at half-time but their deficiencies in attack were more pressing. Falcao is a shadow of the player who was one of the most devastating strikers in the world before his disastrous loan spell at Manchester United last season and there is a somewhat illogical assumption that Mourinho will wave his magic wand and restore the 29-year-old’s powers.
The Colombia striker has lost his pace and resembled a man who was dragging a boulder through a field of treacle on the rare occasions when he broke into a run. Chelsea need Costa back.
The Guardian,Uk
