After dispatching Juventus with ease, defending Serie A champions AC Milan look to get their revenge on Chelsea as they welcome The Blues to San Siro.
After a tough 3-0 loss to Chelsea, AC Milan got back to business with a 2-0 win over Juventus at home. The victory puts them just one point behind second-place Atalanta. In spite of their internal instability over the previous few years, The Old Lady were still anticipated to put up a fight. But the reigning champions showed why they won Serie A last season by oozing talent on the night in question.
With regards to Chelsea, everything went according to plan for Graham Potter’s team, who triumphed despite making seven substitutions in the course of the match thanks to goals from Kai Havertz and Christian Pulisic as well as Armando Broja’s first-ever goal for the club. The young forward has signed a new six contract with the club at the start of this campaign.
When & Where?
Venue: San Siro.
Date: Tuesday, Oct 11, 2022.
Time: 8 pm BST.
What can AC Milan do to get a result against Chelsea?
AC Milan has been missing a lot of important players like Florenzi, Ibrahimovi, Davide Calabria, captain Simon Kjaer, Junior Messias, and starting goalkeeper Mike Maignan. Theo Hernandez had also missed the away game in London, but he will now play this game after playing against Juventus.
The Frenchman played a crucial role in the club’s Scudetto victory last season. Although Fodé Ballo-Touré may be useful off the bench, he lacks the offensive prowess of his former Real Madrid teammate. In the previous two years, Hernandez has provided an outstanding 23 goals and assists. As a result, AC Milan’s offence will be considerably more fluid than it was at Stamford Bridge, when Rafael Leao had trouble facing Reece James on the right side of the field.
When facing Chelsea, Stefano Pioli will have to adjust to a new style of play in which the Blues’ assault will be centred more on the middle of the field rather than on the wings, as it was when they were coached by Tuchel.
They’ll need to work hard, too, to prevent Chelsea from breaking up their formation. Although they lined up as a back four at Stamford Bridge, it looked more like a back two.
This is very dangerous given that Potter’s team can easily harm them with their rapid style of play, and the Blues have a numerical advantage when assaulting Milan. They must also be cautious around corners. Thiago Silva and Kalidou Koulibaly will always pose a significant danger to their goal.
The Potter magic is already started to work in West London
Graham Potter’s name has been tipped as the best England manager in a long time. The English managers were very traditional, like when they played counter-attacking styles and took a direct approach in games. But Potter is part of a new wave of English coaches who want to play possession-based attacking football. Even though how these ideas are put into action may be different from coach to coach, they all want to play this kind of football.
Potter has been a very flexible manager deploying multiple sets of formations and shapes to counter what his opposition number has to offer. His footprints have been clearly visible on this Chelsea team as well. As mentioned briefly how Chelsea played under Thomas Tuchel and what we are watching now under Graham are two different sets of ideas.
Tuchel was a manager who believed in attacking the opposition through the flanks as often as possible. If an attack fails, we frequently see the ball being passed back or to the opposite side of the pitch to locate an area where you may hurt your opponent. However, this meant that the opponent, not Chelsea, dictated the terms. Waiting for an opponent to make a mistake is tough unless you compel them to.
And this is exactly what Potter’s side have done. We are seeing less amounts of back-passes rather than the ball is sent into the box, sometimes speculatively, but the new threats generated from those speculative balls are far greater than anything recycling possession could bring.
How does qualification picture look right now in Group E?
Since Salzburg beat Dinamo Zagreb at home last week, Group E is now wide open. Chelsea, who looked like they might drop into the UEFA Europa League or even be kicked out of the competition, will be relieved by their 3-0 win over AC Milan, and their recent play under Potter does suggest they will make it out of this group.
AC Milan are already in a bad situation since they were forced to deploy a large number of their key players against Juventus. Despite the fact that they made four substitutions, they do not have the bench power and numbers like Chelsea. The Blues rested T. Silva, Reece James (who did play a cameo against Wolves), Kovacic, Sterling & Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang who all will most likely start again.
One advantage they will have is their 30000 home fans all cheering them on.
Predicted Lineups
AC Milan predicted lineup vs Chelsea: Tatarusanu; Dest, Kalulu, Tomori, Hernandez; Bennacer, Tonali; Krunic, Diaz, Leao; Giroud.
Chelsea predicted lineup vs AC Milan: Kepa; Chalobah, T Silva, Koulibaly; James, Loftus-Cheek, Kovacic, Chilwell; Sterling, Aubameyang, Mount.
