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We wanted to see some solid improvement in Chelsea’s third match of preseason, and solid improvement is exactly what we got tonight in Atlanta — especially in the first half — in the 3-0 victory over defending Liga MX champions Club América.

Most of the goals came early, with Christopher Nkunku converting a penalty won by Roméo Lavia (!) in the second minute, and then Marc Guiu finally getting a goal reward for all his tireless running his summer, nodding in a good cross in the twenty-second from Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall making his Chelsea debut.

Chelsea generated chances seemingly at will, making life very uncomfortable for the yellow shirts and creating plenty of danger from the wings. A couple spectacular saves, plus a couple shocking misses (including Armando Broja later on in the second half) kept the score from getting out of hand.

With both teams ringing the changes in the second half, the fluidity was not quite what it was in the first, but Chelsea’s individual quality shone through in certain moments — such as when Nkunku went on a mazy run to win Chelsea’s second penalty of the night. Noni Madueke claimed this one.

It wasn’t exactly a perfect performance, certainly not off the ball, with Robert Sánchez forced into yet another wondersave, Club América hitting the crossbar, and Ben Chilwell making an amazing goal-line block at one point, too. Losing the possession battle may not be part of the plan either if our primary form of defending is to keep the ball.

But it was much better than we had seen before. Dare I say promising, even?

Carefree.

• The key variation appeared to be Gusto at left back “inverting” into midfield to join Lavia, and James at right-center back. This seemed to work better than any other variation we’ve seen so far.
• Dewsbury-Hall clearly quite familiar with the system, if not quite his new teammates. Enzo on for the second 45 in his stead for his first minutes of preseason as well.
• Jörgensen makes his debut — not nearly as assured as Sánchez with the few touches we saw. No major mistakes from either. And a clean sheet!
• Someone have a talk with Madueke about penalty-taking orders
• Malo Gusto seemed to pick up a knock before walking off gingerly under careful watch by the physios. Concerning.
• Armando Broja got hit in the head late on, but continued on for some reason
• Next up: Manchester City on Sunday at Ohio State in Columbus, OH
• KBTFFH