(Video): What Chelsea’s first goal on Tuesday tells us about £750k summer arrival’s impact | OneFootball

It’s easy to forget now, given how things ended up, but shortly before Chelsea scored their opening goal on Tuesday night, things were getting very tense at Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea had not found a foothold in the game, the fans were getting on the team’s back when they played out from the back, and it really did look like things could turn sour.

It wasn’t much better on the pitch either – Cole Palmer had the perfect chance to pass to Christopher Nkunku in front of goal, but decided to shoot instead. That caused massive tension. But from the corner won there, the Blues scored through Nkunku, and never looked back.

You can see the goal in the clip embedded here:

Chelsea’s set piece wizard finally making his mark?

Bernardo Cueva speaks to Enzo Fernandez in preseason.

This little routine, with Tosin making a near post run and flicking it on to the far post, where Nkunku had looped around the back and lost his man, took the Blues to 10 set piece goals for the season in the Premier League.

That puts them joint fourth with Arsenal. It’s a marked improvement over the last few years, and hopefully a sign that the set piece coach Bernardo Cueva appointed so controversially in the summer is taking effect. Just over a month ago we were complaining we hadn’t seen much evidence – perhaps we’ve now turned a corner, no pun intended.

There are some caveats – some of those set piece goals are direct free kicks, which Cueva doesn’t have much control over, and we will need to see a little more detailed breakdown before we get too excited.

We’ve also conceded 7 from set pieces this season, which is pretty mid-table. But given we play with a small, technical team, that’s probably to be expected.