Chelsea vs Wrexham Match Report

A Five Star Performance from Pochettino’s Men!

Chelsea took on Wrexham AFC in a pre-season friendly in a boiling-hot North Carolina for Mauricio Pochettino’s first game in charge of the club. The game kicked off at 01:00 UK time so I’m sure many readers missed the game. Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered with a full match report. 

Pochettino’s first Chelsea lineup was in the expected 4-2-3-1 formation and the side he picked saw debuts for the likes of Malo Gusto, Andrey Santos, Cesare Casadei, Diego Moreira, and Nicolas Jackson. 

Chelsea got off to a dream start in Mauricio Pochettino’s first game in charge as Ian Maatsen scored after 140 seconds. The goal gave the Chelsea fans a first glimpse of some of the quality that these new faces have. Diego Moreira, who joined on a free transfer from Benfica turned his man effectively before slipping in Nicolas Jackson, who showed some very tidy footwork to enter the Wrexham box before unselfishly squaring the ball to Maatsen, who rolled the ball into an empty net. A perfect start. 

After the goal, Chelsea continued to show some promising signs, not least Cesare Casadei’s driving runs in midfield. He partnered Andrey Santos and they both looked mostly comfortable in that double pivot. Casadei really stood out in the first half against a technical and physical Wrexham midfield. He looked like ‘the experienced’ player and he made the Wrexham players look 20 years old. 

Obviously, all players showed signs of rust throughout the first half which is expected seeing as it’s the first pre-season game and the vast majority of these players haven’t played together before. Nicolas Jackson, however, looked especially promising in the first half, his speed, linkup play and power were on display and it really encouraged me and I’m sure Pochettino loved what he saw. 

It was over 30 degrees Celsius at Chapel Hill in North Carolina so the players took a well-earned drinks break in the 23rd minute. This did kill some of the momentum Chelsea had, and the rest of the first half seemed to be teetering along. Wrexham had their moments, Ben Tozer’s famous long throw did cause us some issues but we managed to eventually deal with all the balls that were launched into our box. 

The first half ended like it started, with Ian Maatsen scoring past Ben Foster. The second goal was the kind of finish a seasoned number nine would be proud of. He received a layoff from Carney Chukwuemeka (who impressed throughout the half) and slotted the ball into the back of the net with deadeye precision. His goals bookended a half that showcased a Chelsea side with an average age of just over 19 showing great promise. There were plenty of performances to be proud of. 

Chelsea fielded a different lineup in the second half and also changed formation to a three-at-the-back system. Angelo Gabriel, Alfie Gilchrist, Raheem Sterling, Ben Chilwell, Conor Gallagher, and Christopher Nkunku all entered the game at the halfway stage. 

The half started pretty poorly with Chelsea and Wrexham both producing nothing until after the second half’s hydration break, where Chelsea finally had something to cheer about in the second period with a goal from Conor Gallagher, who tamely slotted the ball into the bottom left corner after an assist from Raheem Sterling. The goalkeeper should’ve done better but Chelsea and Gallagher didn’t care. 

The third goal opened the floodgates and in the 90th minute, we got the goal we’d been craving. Cesare Casadei (who is my pick for man of the match) played an inch-perfect through ball to Christopher Nkunku after another powerful run through the Wrexham midfield, and Nkunku kept his cool, rounded the keeper and opened his Chelsea account. That was the moment Chelsea fans desperately wanted to see.

(Pictures from CFC TV)

We added another three minutes later and it was another well-crafted goal. Angelo Gabriel slipped Chilwell in with a delightful through ball and Chelsea’s left-wing back dinked the ball over the keeper into the back of the net to seal the game.

This 5-0 scoreline marked the perfect start to Mauricio Pochettino’s reign at Chelsea. There is a lot more to come from these players and we can look forward to more players coming back before we face Brighton on Sunday. It’s easy to get ahead of yourself in pre-season but I found it a (mostly) brilliant game to watch and I cannot wait for what’s to come in the near future. 

Will Reyner