Yesterday’s loss against Manchester City was not only a huge dent in Chelsea’s title chances but also an extremely tough match for a Chelsea fan to watch. The Blues were defensive from the first moment onwards, created almost no chances in the first half, and only got into the game after the introduction of Kai Havertz. It seemed like Thomas Tuchel wanted to try out a tactic that Jose Mourinho would have used back in 2014; only defending and then trying to hit the opponents on a counter does not work in modern football.
As a lifelong Chelsea fan, this was an extremely tough game to watch. Not just this match, even the first half of the match against Tottenham was tough to watch. The defenders had to absorb so much pressure throughout the first half, it was absolutely insane. After such a tiring first half, the defenders, including the defensive midfielders are bound to get tired and make a mistake. While the goal by Gabriel Jesus did have the element of luck involved in it, the Blue’s performance till they conceded was alarming.
Chelsea has to play more confidently if they want to win against the big teams.
There was no effort to play out the ball, Marcos Alonso was losing the ball easily, Jorginho could not find anyone to pass to, and when Timo Werner or Romelu Lukaku did find themselves in the opponent’s half, they were completely isolated. There was no support in the attack and in fact, Werner helped the defense out more. This is not the Chelsea that we saw back in the Champions League finals.
While even in the finals we had to rely a lot on our brilliant defense, Mason Mount, N’Golo Kante, Havertz and Werner were a constant threat on the counter. This time around we could not even start the counters because we were losing the ball in the midfield. Tonight should be a night of self-reflection. The Blues have been getting the results however, the games have not been very convincing. As mentioned before, Spurs were the more dominant side in the first half, and had they managed to score, the match could have ended up very differently. Even Aston Villa were more attacking than us in the recent PL match.
This is the cause of serious concern as we cannot allow teams to push us this further back into our own side. We need to be the dominant force that we were at the start of the season. We need to create more attacks, play with more confidence, and stop relying solely on our defenders and Edouard Mendy. Until and unless we show more passion and grit in the midfield and the third half, we cannot defeat the stronger teams, and Manchester City is a testament to that statement.
Where do you think Chelsea went wrong against City? Let us know in the comments down below and on Twitter!
