Four Things We Learned: Roma pick Chelsea apart with style and substance

Roma brushed Chelsea aside in a superb showing on Tuesday night at the Stadio Olimpico. Our columnist looks at four key points from the contest...

Remarkable win puts qualification within reach

Roma's emphatic 3-0 victory in their thrilling Champions League clash with Chelsea was certainly a game that will be remembered for many years to come. Getting off to the perfect start courtesy of Stephan El Shaarawy's sublime first minute strike, Roma kept their foot on the pedal to overcome the reigning English champions, in what was Roma's finest performance of the Eusebio Di Francesco era to date.

In addition, the win now propels them to the top of the group and puts them in a fantastic position to qualify to the next stage.

Breaking the press

When Roma looked to pass out from the back, they used a number of methods to manipulate Chelsea's defensive structure. One strategy that worked particularly well, however, was they way Roma would focus on their right to manufacture openings.

As seen in the graphic below, Roma take full advantage of Marcos Alonso's extremely aggressive pressing of right back, Alessandro Florenzi. Florenzi often then bypassed the Spaniard's harrying and found El Shaarawy, who'd push upfield to provide an outlet, which subsequently drew Antonio Rudiger out of his central defensive slot to mark him.

The typically energetic Radja Nainggolan then exploited this to the fullest by marauding forward into the right channel that Rudiger had left behind to receive in very advantageous areas.

El Shaarawy's tireless defensive work

While El Shaarawy's brilliant brace rightly grabbed the headlines, his relentless tracking of his direct opponent, Chelsea wing back Alonso, also deserves special mention. Remaining focused and entirely concentrated at his defensive task at hand, the below image suitably demonstrates how diligently he undertook his work in this regard.

Here, upon noticing Eden Hazard drop deep and subsequently drag Florenzi with him, Alonso immediately bursted forward into the now unoccupied space. But El Shaarawy's rapid response to this, in combination with his searing pace, saw him able to race back, beat Alonso to the ball and calmly quell the danger.

Perotti's purposeful movement

By constantly dropping into midfield from his left wing station, Diego Perotti's nifty movement served the Giallorossi excellently throughout. Not only did this give the home side an extra number in midfield and numerical superiority in such a vital area of the pitch, but it also allowed the dynamic Argentine to receive possession freely in a less congested area of the pitch, where he could use his wonderful dribbling skills to animate his team's attacking moves from deep.

Perotti's smoothly executed rotations with Kevin Strootman when dropping crucially caused an element of confusion as to who should be marked by who, thus buying him more even time on the ball.

The fact he completed a notable six successful dribbles certainly evidenced how nicely the tactic worked.