Nicolas Anelka continued his superb pre-season form by putting four goals past an AC Milan side this morning. The Frenchman took his tally to seven goals this summer, adding to Lampard’s opener as Chelsea humbled a weakened Milan lineup.
It begs the question – is Le Sulk le striking solution for our fantasy teams?
AC Milan 0 Chelsea 5
Chelsea went in front in this one after just two minutes. Lampard getting the benefit of one of his trademark deflections, firing in a low free kick that found its way into the Milan net. Five minutes later Anelka got started. The Milan defence made a hash of a clearance from Malouda’s searching ball and Anelka finished smartly from the edge of the box.
Chelsea’s third goal was just an embarrassment – Milan’s keeper Kalac, formerly of Leicester City, air kicking a back pass and leaving Anelka free to stroke the ball home.
Deco replaced Ballack for the second half and the playmaker soon made an impact, finding Malouda who duly crossed for Anelka to seal his hat-trick. Malouda was also the architect for Anelka’s fourth, as Chelsea went 5-0 up in under an hour.
Scolari’s starting lineup offered more talking points. Ballack was given his first start of the pre-season as part of a midfield three that also included Lampard and Mikel. Both of those players have been ever present under Scolari so far so it looks as though Essien, Ballack and Deco are the three players who are competing for the remaining one or two midfield slots.
Essien started the last game in the attacking right midfield role which today went to Wright-Phillips, with Malouda taking Cole’s spot on the left of the attack. In defence meanwhile Ivanovic was given a try out at right-back and Alex got a start alongside Terry.
Anelka, not surprisingly was the focus of much of his post match comments, with some interesting insight into Scolari’s instructions to the Frenchman which could have a bearing on his goal output this seaosn.
“Anelka today and the last game played more inside the penalty area than before,” remarked Scolari.
‘That is where I asked him to play and where I need him, not right and left as before, because we have one striker and that is Anelka”.
After this performance and those words from Scolari, Anelka is surely a safe bet for the team sheet come August 16. As such he must surely be a consideration for fantasy managers. A confident Anelka is a very different prospect to the player we saw for the latter half of last season when he was often in the shadow of Drogba and employed out in a wide position. Drogba’s absence from Chelsea’s pre-season has given Anelka the opportunity to show he can play a central striking role for Scolari and he has taken his chance.
Chelsea have now completed their pre-season matches and have already flown back to the UK to begin their final preparations for the season. That means we already have all the clues we’re going to get as to Scolari’s lineup and formation for the start of the season. He referred to having “a nice selection problem” after today’s game and that’s certainly the case. However he continues to state that he is 85% sure of his starting lineup for the season kick-off against Portsmouth.
‘I have the idea but not completely. Maybe I receive good news about Drogba and we have 12 days to train and maybe we have something I don’t expect,” added the Chelsea boss.
The paper talk today indicated that Drogba was about to sign a bumper 4-year deal wth the club. The striker is still recovering from a knee injury that has seen miss the entire pre-season. As Scolari indicates, it could be that Drogba makes a speedy recovery in the days of training that remain. However, given his lack of match fitness, Chelsea must surely go into the Portsmouth game without him, putting the emphasis firmly on the shoulders of Anelka to get the goals. Given current form it’s difficult not to back him to rise to the responsibility. Based on the pre-season, Anelka, along with Darren Bent at Spurs and maybe Crouch at Portsmouth, is currently the form striker in the Premiership.
It will be interesting to see if Anelka’s popularity rises as a result of today’s haul. Currently just 1% of Fantasy Premier League and Telegraph managers have dared to draft him in.
Lampard meanwhile, has also had an impressive pre-season, despite speculation regarding his future. Surprisingly in the Fantasy Premier League game he has been selected by just 5% of managers thus far, while only 8% of Telegraph managers have opted for him. Despite this Lampard is surely set to start the season as one of Scolari’s “untouchables” and is clearly still paramount to Chelsea’s attacking impetus. Lampard’s three pre-season goals may well convince fantasy managers that he deserves attention and see him brought into a few more fantasy lineups in the next week or so.
Chelsea also ended the pre-season having conceded just one goal, emphasising that Cech and his defence are likely to continue to offer strong defensive returns. Cech is currenlty fifth in the FPL and Telegraph keeper rankings.
Chelsea vs AC Milan:
Cech (Cudicini 72), Ivanovic (Ferreira 61), Alex, Terry (Carvalho 61), A Cole; Ballack (Deco h-t), Mikel, Lampard; Wright-Phillips (Sinclair 77), Anelka (Shevchenko 66), Malouda.