Antonio Conte managed his first pre-season match as Chelsea head coach on Saturday evening, a 2-0 loss to Rapid Vienna as they opened their aesthetically pleasing stadium, Allianz Stadion.
It didn’t take long for the Chelsea back line to show shades of last season, as Joelinton gave the hosts a 1-0 lead just eight minutes in after Papy Djilobodji got caught ball-watching.
The attack began to open up shortly thereafter, with numerous dangerous crosses from wide positions by Victor Moses and a plethora of corner kicks, but the Blues were unable to find the back of the net.
After going into half-time trailing 2-0, Conte brought Oscar on for Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Ola Aina, fresh off a four-year contract, on for Baba Rahman.
Conte then brought on English journeyman Nathaniel Chalobah 13 minutes later, as he replaced John Obi Mikel and partnered with Nemanja Matic.
In the 72nd minute, Diego Costa and Willian made way for Loic Remy and Kenedy, respectively, as Conte’s final subs within the final 13 minutes came via Bertrand Traore for Matic and Christian Atsu for Moses.
Two minutes after Atsu entered the pitch in the 80th minute, Tomi’s 82nd-minute goal doubled the hosts’ lead. Branislav Ivanovic really deserves credit for the goal, as he picked up right where he left off from in the 2015/16 season and did everything but kick the ball across the line — but that’s beside the point.
On the surface, it may have seemed like a disappointing result for Chelsea. Nonetheless, here’s four things we learnt from the match.
