A very relieved Levi Colwill spoke to the media after Chelsea’s win over Fulham, and you could feel the positivity flowing out of him as he talked through the late double that had seen off our West London rivals:
“We all knew the first half wasn’t good enough. So, in the second half, we knew we’d have to sit in, dig deep and show how much we wanted this win. I think in the second half you saw a different Chelsea and that’s the Chelsea we need to start with every game,” the defender said in quotes picked up by the club’s official website.
“This is a huge win for us because coming to Fulham is never easy,” added Colwill.
“It can definitely give us confidence for the remaining games – both in the league and in Europe – but we have to just keep taking each game as it comes. The focus now is on Everton in our next game, a tough fixture, but one we can take confidence into following this victory.”
Chelsea must find second half intensity from kick off
He’s right – “that’s the Chelsea we need to start with in every game” – the question is, how do we get to see that Chelsea in the first half of games? He knows that’s the problem, we know it’s the problem, Enzo Maresca knows it’s the problem. Yet almost every week we start with a dreadful, slow, passive, nervy first half. Sometimes we manage to turn it around, but often we don’t.
How do we start games like we finished the game yesterday? Is it a matter of preparation or psychology? Whatever it is, Enzo Maresca hasn’t been able to do anything to fix it yet, so you’ll forgive us for not being too confident about it changing now.