One interesting decision by Mauricio Pochettino in the starting lineup today was picking Armando Broja ahead of Nicolas Jackson.
It wasn’t what we expected, and in the end it didn’t last long. At half time, the Albania striker was taken off for his counterpart. He barely got a kick of the ball, with Chelsea unable to really get the ball into dangerous positions in the first 45.
The change didn’t feel like a punishment, or even a reflection of Broja’s performance. To some degree this was likely planned. Broja is only just returning from almost a year out, and we were surprised to see him start at all. If the 45 minutes wasn’t already a programmed changed, we can’t imagine he would have done more than an hour.
Jackson has gone to to score, reinforcing the decision to use him in the second period. At long last we have what we wanted – genuine competition between two strikers up top.