Chelsea duo dominate duels 16 to 4, but produce fewer forward passes together than Calum Chambers | OneFootball

Moises Caicedo was brought in to Chelsea’s midfield to strengthen them last night in a largely rotated team, and it worked a treat alongside fellow enforcer Andrey Santos.

Chelsea duo provide powerful screen but can’t get Blues up the pitch

Moises Caicedo in action for Chelsea. (Photo by Alex Pantling/Getty Images)

The stats show that the pair of them made a major impact for the Blues. Caicedo won 7 of 8 ground duels and 2/2 aerial duels. Santos, meanwhile, had 6/8 and 1/2 in the same categories.

That gives them a total of 16/4 between them. If you keep your numbers up that high in duels in the middle of the park, you won’t lose many games.

They were Chelsea’s top rated starters according to FotMob, who had Caicedo as an 8.5 and Santos as an 8.2.

Even then, Cardiff gave them a tough time. The home team weren’t able to create much direct threat thanks to the impressive defensive screen the pair put up, but they did keep the ball nicely and stop Chelsea finding a rhythm.

Santos, for example, had just 61 touches, with 5 Cardiff players taking more than the Chelsea central midfielder, showing how balanced things were. Caicedo and Santos combined played just 9 passes into the final third, fewer than Cardiff centre back Calum Chambers who played 13 on his own.

Putting Enzo Fernandez into that mix would add a lot of ability to play forward, and we expect that setup in a few games this year.

In other news…

Pedro Neto pointed out that this trophy means a lot to Chelsea this season, and we reckon that’s especially true because of one major dressing room factor.

Neto also spoke about the goal that Chelsea conceded and pointed out that it was probably due to the team’s focus on defending a flurry of corners that preceded the cross that came in.