Preliminary Thoughts

Having seen Chelsea, Man City and Arsenal in action on Saturday (so much for disinterest in the Premier League), here are some preliminary thoughts/knee-jerk reactions to their respective performances/systems.

Chelsea

As expected, Chelsea employed the 4-4-2 diamond formation, with Mikel at the base, Lampard at the tip, and Malouda and Essien on either side. I don't believe it worked. None of these four midfielders looked comfortable on the pitch, especially Lampard. Chelsea had the lion's share of possession, yet the one they call Fat Frank rarely featured. Mikel was irrelevant, given that Hull were never going to be seeing too much of the ball. And Michael Essien will struggle in games like this, where cleverness and creativity as opposed to power and work-rate are the order of the day.

In short, if Chelsea line up in midfield like so against teams with similar tactics to Hull, they will struggle. I know they had roughly half a million shots on goal, but they only really started piling on the pressure when Ancelotti changed things at half time by taking of the irrelevancy that was Obi Mikel and bringing on Ballack, and then switching Essien into the centre where he is eminently more comfortable. Even then, it was introducing the talents of Deco that really swung things in Chelsea's favour. In a situation where you are facing nine defenders, guile and craft are the tools you need. Deco has both of these, if nothing else.

The fact that Ancelotti made the requisite substitutions, and made them swiftly, bodes well. He saw what was wrong and did his best to rectify it. What will worry him is how easily Hull dealt with any threat down either flank. Cole and Bosingwa were spectators for large parts of the game, not needed in defense and unable to get involved in attack. With those two neutralised, Chelsea offer little if any width. This may be manageable against the Hull City's of this world, but against a good team they will find that they have nowhere to go, no outlet. I just wonder how Chelsea will cope against a team that doesn't surrender possession lightly. Good thing there's not too many of them in the Premier League, from a Chelsea point of view.

A word on Anleka and Drogba. They were rubbish as a partnership, and not great as individuals. Drogba will always be a threat, but this will be in spite of rather than because of his strike partner. The two don't compliment each other in the slightest. It's like playing with two lone strikers, because there doesn't appear to be any harmony between the pair. And thanks to the Guardian's chalkboards, I have concrete evidence to suggest as much! Out of 471 Chelsea passes, precisely three involved both Drogba and Anelka, and one of those was from a kick-off. Whatever way you look at things, that's not good. Simply put, I don't trust this partnership, and I don't think Ancelotti will trust it for too long either. The Premier League's reigning top scorer could find his days numbered, but this will only serve to aid the Chelsea cause.

Key to any Chelsea success this season will be Ancelotti. To be the new Scolari, he simply has to stick by his original principles until they inevitably fail. To be the new Mourinho, he needs to continue to do what he did in the opening game - adapt. His willingness to do so make me more confident in Chelsea than I was 24 hours ago, but the real tests await.

Man City

I predicted a 4-3-3 line up for this City team, based on the players Hughes has at his disposal. It's early days yet and thus too early to conclude anything, but a loosely fitting 4-4-2 was City's formation of choice against a surprisingly good Blackburn outfit, and will perhaps be their default formation for the rest of the campaign. (As an aside, this could be the season Pederson becomes a good Fantasy Football pick again.) Barry and Ireland were in the centre, with Robinho and Wright-Phillips occupying the wings, leaving a big-guy/little-guy combination of Adebayor and Bellamy up top. I have to be honest; I didn't see Wright-Phillips or Bellamy getting much of a look in when it came to Mark Hughes picking attacking options for the starting 11. Perhaps this first game is a mere aberration; perhaps not. Only time will tell.

There were fundamental flaws to City's general approach to the game, but one thing they can't be accused of is boring. It's not often you'll see an entertaining encounter in Ewood Park on a wet day, but that's exactly what we got yesterday, largely thanks to Manchester City's risky tactics. Putting Robinho in as a left winger is a mistake in my opinion. Unless you play him off the striker, he can't be integrated into a 4-4-2 system without your team becoming incredibly vulnerable on his flank. Blackburn created numerous opportunities down their right hand side, and so one can only imagine what a Manchester United or an Arsenal might do if given similar time and space.

I can only assume that this is the formation Hughes used during pre-season, so he's probably not going to re-jig it now. But re-jig it he must if Man City are going to mount any kind of serious push for fourth place. Make no mistake about it; they were quite lucky to beat Blackburn. And a team assembled for £200m should not need to rest on luck in order to win football matches. In Ireland and Barry they possess two very good central midfield players, but I can't help but think they need a third man in there -- a de Jong or a Kompany -- who will offer the defense the protection it was crying out for yesterday, and who will help define Ireland and Barry's roles more precisely. They were a bit all over the place yesterday, and so Blackburn were free to drive trucks (or Chris Samba) through to their defense.

Perhaps mere time will be the healer, with players unfamiliar with each other gelling as the games pile up. But then of course time alone is no adhesive. The dressing room must be kept in order, players must be kept happy (though wads of cash tend to solve that little dilemma), and the tactics must allow for a solid unit to form. I think 4-4-2 will prove to be untenable, simply because 4-3-3 caters for more of City's big players in terms of where they are comfortable and where they work. Much like with Chelsea, there will be sterner tests than the one faced on Saturday. There are positives to be taken from a Man City perspective, with the main one being that they picked up a crucial three points. A loss to Blackburn -- which so easily could have happened were it not for Shay Given -- would have immediately piled the pressure on Mark Hughes and his band of rich, merry men. There is still much work to do, but if City can build up momentum then I may be proved wrong about them. They're an exciting team to watch, both because of their attack and defense, or lackthereof -- and so the Premier League is all the richer for them, in more ways than one.

more to come...