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Chelsea wrapped up their pre-season tour of the US tonight, losing 1-0 to an offside goal from AC Milan. Chelsea looked the better side for much of the game, but the end result just wasn't there this evening. Here's a few things I took from this game:
- Raul Meireles is the anti David Luiz. No matter what he does with it, his hair is always awful.
- Both Hutch and Bran are far too cross-happy this pre-season. The cross from 35 yards out is the least efficient possible way to attack, Drogba or no Drogba. There's no reason to work the ball to the right if our right backs are just going to give it away.
- John Obi Mikel had himself a very good game. Great job changing flanks, and he had a few nice long through balls from the back.
- Our set pieces today looked very good.
- Romelu Lukaku needs to draw himself closer to one of the center backs when making his runs. He's timing them well, but he's leaving smaller lanes than he needs to and often being caught wrong footed when the midfield feeds him on the other side. He had an excellent second half tonight.
- David Luiz seems to have enjoyed the pre-season tour of America off the pitch a lot. He looked like he wanted to wow the crowds too much while on it though.
- Marko Marin just looks like he showed up at Cobham early. He was sharp again. His ability to play anywhere on the band of 3 should see him getting plenty of action.
- There are an awful lot of Chelsea fans in the US.
- Fernando Torres is still Fernando Torres.