Analysis: Guiu’s No 9 role can return Joao Pedro to his best

Football writer Daniel Edwards identifies the key players, team tactics and where matches could be won and lost in Matchweek 9.

Player analysis: Marc Guiu (Chelsea)

When Guiu was sent on loan from Chelsea to Sunderland in the summer, he would have marked this Saturday's visit to Stamford Bridge down in his diary - excited to catch up with his Blues team-mates but no doubt disappointed to be ineligible to play against his parent club.

But a sliding doors moment means Guiu will now be expected to feature in this weekend’s match after all, with the Spanish teenager having been recalled by Chelsea at the end of August after Liam Delap suffered a long-term hamstring injury.

Indeed, he may well start the match, having got the nod in Wednesday's UEFA Champions League match against Ajax and scored the opening goal in the 5-1 win.

Guiu didn’t have time to make the impact he would have wanted at Sunderland, afforded just 13 minutes from the bench across two substitute appearances in the Premier League, with a scoring start against Huddersfield in the EFL Cup sandwiched in between.

Chelsea’s plan was to use Delap and Joao Pedro in combination – Delap as the prototypical bustling No 9, while the Brazilian played a deeper role as he had done to great effect for Brighton & Hove Albion.

With Delap injured and Nicolas Jackson having already agreed a move to Bayern Munich, Chelsea decided to recall Guiu rather than re-enter the market, and the young Spaniard has shown hints that he may well be qualified to fulfill the role Delap was meant to.

Guiu has had to be patient, with Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca opting to use Joao Pedro as a lone centre-forward in five consecutive league matches since Delap’s injury.

However, it has become clearer with each passing match that Joao Pedro is more impactful from deep.

He has failed to score in all five league matches since Delap's injury on 30 August, and has recorded just three shot attempts, all of them off target.

But in his two starts in a deeper role alongside Delap against West Ham United and Fulham in August, he scored twice and provided two assists.

It was a similar story in the first half of last weekend’s match against Nottingham Forest, with Joao Pedro struggling to meaningfully affect the game at centre-forward.

The Blues went in goalless after 45 minutes with their five shots totalling 0.37 Expected Goals (xG), but Guiu’s half-time introduction and Joao Pedro’s subsequent move into midfield changed the outlook of the game.

Maresca's midfield switch and Chelsea's match momentum

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Chelsea scored twice within seven minutes of the second half before adding a third late on, finishing the game with 17 shots for an xG of 1.67.

Forest had been poor at set-pieces under Ange Postecoglou and this would have been a key area of focus for Maresca, but Chelsea failed to win a corner in the first half.

It took just 20 seconds for Guiu to change that, tussling with Forest centre-back Morato on the right before cheekily kicking the ball against his shins to win Chelsea their first corner of the match, instantly showcasing the benefits of playing with a natural striker.

Guiu and Joao Pedro both had a role to play when Chelsea took the lead through Josh Acheampong in the 49th minute.

Now in an attacking midfield position, Joao Pedro picked the ball up on the halfway line before a long run to the left wing eventually saw him fouled by compatriot Igor Jesus.

Reece James’ initial delivery was cleared but Chelsea’s central defenders remained in the Forest box and upon reworking the angle, a Pedro Neto cross was headed beyond Matz Sels by a seemingly unmarked Acheampong (below).

Watch Acheampong's goal v Forest

Replays showed what may have been missed in the moment: Acheampong was unmarked because Guiu had made a near-post run just as Neto was due to connect with the ball, dragging Murillo away from the young defender, who was free to head home as a result.

Less than half a minute after the restart, Joao Pedro fed a pass into Guiu on the edge of the box.

The 19-year-old’s quick spin saw him fouled by Morato and the resulting free-kick was converted by Neto to give Chelsea a two-goal advantage just seven minutes into the second half.

Chelsea's xG contribution v Forest

Maresca’s half-time switch to introduce Guiu and alter Joao Pedro’s role had proved decisive.

While the latter was limited to 16 touches in the first half, he had 40 touches of the ball in the second half, often pulling out to the left to drag Forest’s three central defenders wider.

Joao Pedro's first and second-half touches compared 

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Guiu meanwhile had more touches in the box in his 45 minutes than Joao Pedro did in the full match, while the Spaniard’s 11 sprints were the most of any Chelsea player in the second half as he sought to put Forest’s defensive line under pressure.

Guiu's touches v Forest

“That’s the kind of impact I want him [Guiu] to make”, Maresca said after. “He was on for 15 minutes against Liverpool, battling against Van Dijk, Konate, Gravenberch, he was very good.

“‘Against Forest, after one minute of the second half, he won a corner against Morato. We need that from Marc.”

Delap is nearing a return, but given his explosive playing style and the nature of the injury, he will have to be eased back slowly.

For Guiu, this offers an opportunity to stake his claim as Joao Pedro’s preferred partner, and his midweek Champions League goal will have boosted his claim for another start this weekend.

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