Chelsea’s central defenders looked far more solid with the midfielders ahead protecting them on Saturday.

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We’ve already praised Josh Acheampong for his performance against Everton, but actually the whole back line were good.

On paper, Levi Colwill and Maxence Lacroix is a great pairing, especially with Acheampong there to wider on the right. But the games before the international break saw a team that was so exposed defensively that there were doubts.

However Saturday’s game showed what we hoped to see all along, and is very promising for the future.

Chelsea defensive pair line excel with midfield protection in place

Colwill brings the talent on the ball, Lacroix the physicality. With Moises Caicedo ahead of them to screen it felt like we were hardly hearing their names mentioned. That’s what you want from your team. Everton were held at bay quite some distance from our goal, and made just 6 attempts in the whole game, with 4 of them from set pieces.

Chelsea conceded just 2 open play chances, and none from counter attacks. That shows just how well the Jordan Henderson – Caicedo duo were protecting their defence, who were able to focus on winning long balls and building attacks from the back.

Lacroix and Colwill made just one tackle and one interception between them, so good was the protection they got.

In other news…

The Opta supercomputer thinks Brighton will finish the season ahead of Chelsea after their strong start to the season.

Chelsea kept a long awaited clean sheet on Saturday – and their manager spoke about how the team had worked on their defending.