Date: Wednesday 14th
September 2022
Venue: Stamford Bridge
Kick-off: 20:00 BST
Here we go then, another game, another manager and tonight, we take on
Red Bull Salzburg and new manager Graham Potter takes his place in the Chelsea
dug-out.
Our game against Fulham was postponed at the weekend following the sad death
of Queen Elizabeth II, so that gave Potter a bit of time to get his head around
his new role after his swift appointment and hopefully get the measure of his
new group of players. The sacking of Tuchel came as a bit of a surprise but
only because of the speed with which he was dispatched, I mean, the press must
have been gutted they didn’t even get time to run the usual stories linking us
with half a dozen prospective successors before it happened. Realistically
though, it was apparent all was not well and hadn’t been for quite some time.
Tuchel’s last game in charge was our opening Group E game against Dinamo
Zagreb and it was bloody awful. The performance was awful, the attitude was
awful and the decisions just defied belief. We could almost never predict a
starting XI or where anyone might be playing any given week, but bringing on
Ziyech and Pulisic when you’re chasing a game? That’s a whole different level
of confusion….and so it played out.
So, with that defeat behind us, its Salzburg at Stamford Bridge as we
try to get some points in the group. The visitors will bring an attacking
threat, so our defence will need to look a lot livelier than it has done so far
this season. They had a better opening game than us and came away with a 1-1
draw against AC Milan and whilst Salzburg are in the group stage for the fourth
successive season, for Potter, its his maiden voyage in the competition as well
as his first game with us. The Austrian outfit have also had seven wins from
their eight domestic games so far, whilst we’ve lost three of our last five
games in all competitions.
No pressure for the new manager though….
MANAGER’S VIEWS
Going into
today’s game, Chelsea manager Graham Potter, says “It’s a good time for me to get into the dugout. My experiences in the
Champions League are just at supporter level. But obviously I’ve experienced
the Europa League with Ostersund, winning at Galatasaray and getting through
the group stage.
This is an amazing evening for us, for all of us: it’s very exciting. At
the same time, you can imagine we’ve been preparing a team, preparing for a
game, getting to know the players and people at the training ground. We’re
really looking forward to it. Wherever we
would start it would be a heck of an introduction, wherever we start it’s going
to be brilliant, so why not start here?”
Salzburg
manager Matthias Jaissle,
meanwhile, says “We haven’t seen any games
of the new manager with Chelsea, but we know about their individual quality. We
have analysed their character and the new manager with ideas from (his) old
club. We are very well prepared. It was incredible, just the drive here, to go
through London, to come here to here to the stadium, to soak up the atmosphere,
it’s something incredible – it’s a dream come true for me.”
SQUAD NEWS
For Chelsea, N’golo Kante (hamstring) and
Edouard Mendy (knee) remain out.
For Salzburg, Maximilian Wober, Oumar
Solet, Kamil Piatkowski, Bryan Okoh, Mamady Diambou, Ousmane Diakite, Samson
Tijani, Luka Sucic, Justin Omoregie and Sekou Koita are all expected to be
absent.
TEAMS
CHELSEA (Possible line-up): Kepa; Fofana, Silva, Koulibaly, James, Jorginho, Kovacic, Cucurella; Mount, Aubameyang,
Sterling
SALZBURG
(Possible line-up): Kohn; Dedic, Pavlovic, Ulmer, Bernardo; Capaldo, Seiwald,
Kjaergaard; Kameri; Sesko, Okafor
CURRENT FORM (ALL)
CHELSEA: DLWLWL
SALZBURG: WWWWLW
OTHER STUFF
- This is the first
competitive meeting between the two sides
- The only previous
meeting was a friendly in 2019
- Chelsea have lost three of the last five matches
across all competitions
- Salzburg have never beaten an English club in a
European competition.
- Chelsea have never lost their first two matches in
a European competition.
- Chelsea are unbeaten in 19 of their last 20 home
group matches in the UEFA Champions League.
- Red Bull Salzburg have lost their last three away
matches in the Champions League.
PREDICTION
Sportsmole: Chelsea 2-0 Salzburg
