Saturday’s early kick-off had the potential to ruin a lot of weekends. At least for those are Chelsea-inclined. And it certainly felt disastrous at the time, however, with as results trickled in over the next 36 hours it wasn’t SO bad. It wasn’t great, but it could have been so much worse. Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United all dropped points keeping Chelsea safely tucked up in a Champions League place — losses to West Ham and Crystal Palace be damned.
More concerning than the actual result was the realisation that teams of a certain calibre know that they can ‘get at’ Chelsea. David Moyes’ West Ham played Champions-elect Manchester City last week. To face that free-scoring force, Moyes fielded a teenage defender and didn’t even bother with a striker. While his side are relatively injury plagued at the moment, it still highlights that they were prepared to take that loss on the chin.
Unfortunately, for Chelsea and likely more teams going forward, David Moyes was forced to drop Joe Hart and play Adrian against City. Adrian took his chance and highlighted how bizarre it was for him to even been dropped for Randolph last season. He had an outstanding game against City and unsurprisingly started against Chelsea this weekend. A match he did not need to be outstanding in.
Although Chelsea managed a paltry TWO shots on target, I’m fairly confident that if it was Joe Hart in goal, at least one them would have found the back of the net. Or at least crept gently over the line as Hart failed to control it. If only any other team had played West Ham a week ago…
He might not have been tested or forced to make a save at all, but Adrian did make a contribution. By wasting so much time that I was confident we’d all be stuck at the Sadiq Khan arena until dinner. While it can be a necessary tactic in those final minutes that a team is desperately holding on to a narrow lead — it’s not necessary from the 10th minute onwards. It was so shocking that an actual card was handed out for his time wasting.
From general social media consensus it appears that poor old Tiemoue Bakayoko is shouldering the blame for this result. He has become an unfortunate lightening rod for the over-dramatic over-reactors. And while he doesn’t always cover himself in glory — he’s certainly not half as bad as the Twitteratti have made him out to be. And he certainly wasn’t solely responsible for Saturday’s loss.
Chelsea scored NO goals. None. Nineteen shots — and only two on target. I don’t remember Bakayoko actively stopping any of this teammates from having a bit of a go in front of goal. Or distracting them so their shots were wildly off target. It’s also difficult to whinge about any player on Saturday giving away possession when Chelsea boasted nearly 70% possession. By and large that means Chelsea had the ball for 76 of the 90 minutes and managed just 2 shots on target. This wasn’t down to Bakayoko.
With the constant tinkering of Chesea’s backline and a goalkeeper who seems to be saving his voice for mid-week karaoke, they do invite a lot of pressure on themselves. West Ham did not see a lot of the ball, but when they did it tended to be in the final third just making a nuisance of themselves. If there was anyone who could properly finish, there would have been more than a goal in the game.
As it stood, Lidl’s own Ibrahimovic was the difference scoring after just 6 minutes. Early enough for West Ham to have been punished thoroughly. After seeing Marko Arnautovic’s ridiculous leap over the hoardings, there should have been a lot more fight on the pitch. Maybe a water bottle thrown in a tunnel sort of fight.
At least Michy Batshuayi brought a solitary highlight of the day. Blankets and gloves be damned, Batshuayi dealt with the frosty weekend temperatures by cuddling up to a hot water bottle. My only complaint would be that he didn’t share.
Chelsea travel to Huddersfield on Tuesday night. I’d say he should bring a few more — but there’s every chance he could get a rare start. Alvaro Morata has pulled out with a ‘back injury’. I’m confident that it’s a real injury and he doesn’t just want to stay in the warmth of his house loved up with his wife and newly announced bump.
jb xx
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