5 goal Chelsea star must be dropped if Blues use new formation | OneFootball

Chelsea tried a new shape tonight against Fulham – one we expect to see more of under new boss Liam Rosenior.

It allows the Blues to use Andrey Santos, who shone under Rosenior at Strasbourg, along with Enzo Fernandez and Moises Caicedo all at the same time. This in turn pushes Cole Palmer out to the right wing.

Sadly in this game we didn’t get to see it for long. Marc Cucurella’s red card meant that the Blues were down to ten men after just 20 minutes, and the man taken off right away for a new left back was Santos.

Chelsea’s new setup shows promise – but needs time to develop

Pedro Neto celebrates against Cardiff. (Photo by Dan Istitene/Getty Images)

So while we didn’t get to draw too many conclusions, we did see nice flashes of Palmer out wide, even when we were down to ten men. We know he can do it, it’s just a question of making sure our right back comes outside him on the overlap to provide width.

However Pedro Neto, who despite some goals this season has been increasingly poor both on the right and now on the left, can’t be part of it. Alejandro Garnacho and Estevao must be ahead of him in the pecking order to play on the left if Palmer is going to stay on the right.

This weekend’s game against Charlton gives us a nice chance to experiment a little more.

In other news…

Calum McFarlane defended Cucurella in his press conference after the defender got a red card. He claimed there was no lack of discipline in the squad – contrary to all the evidence.

McFarlane also used his press conference to praise Liam Delap, who impressed as a sub at the weekend then had a tall order tonight on a team with ten. He still managed to score his first Premier League goal.