Chelsea won, right? Yeah, but that game today was poor, from minute 1, Chelsea looked lethargic, lack of energy, lack of quick and precise passing, as usual Chelsea were fairly stubborn in defence and kept a clean sheet, although Palace did have their chances, notably from Olise and Zaha.
Thomas Tuchel blames the jet lag from flying back from Abu Dhabi for the performance and mentioned that he didn’t expect much from the team today, however the cut scenes focusing in on Tuchel as the match went on told a different story, glum faced, pointing fingers in the air, Tuched looked a man frustrated, and rightly so, the team did not play good enough and nearly came away with yet another draw, which Chelsea have had way too many of this season.
Was this one of the first times under Tuchel’s reign that he was at fault for? Chelsea played a 4-1-4-1 system, Tuchel dropped Mateo Kovacic, N’Golo Kante offered a poor display and Christian Pulisic was strangely opted for at CM whilst Kai Havertz was on the left hand side, the first 45 minutes Pulisic over dribbled and lost the ball, and it didn’t take Chelsea fans long to realise that these 2 should be switched, Havertz didn’t look comfortable out wide, and in Pulisic you have a player who has scored 5 goals in his last 3 matches on the left hand side against Crystal Palace, to me and many others this decision didn’t make sense.
Hakim Ziyech was a bright spark throughout and scored a fantastic winner, he is looking more confident in the 4 at the back systems, Chelsea lacked grip in midfield today, they didn’t control the game as much as usual, Palace made it scrappy and their press was intense and brutal, Chelsea’s passing was sloppy at times, especially when Ruben Loftus Cheek came on and lost the ball twice which caused transitions in a matter of a few minutes, even after Chelsea scored, Palace went up the other end and nearly scored.
Romelu Lukaku was a big talking point with only 7 touches in 90 minutes, poor yes, but Chelsea’s lack of forward passes and urgency to use Lukaku was alarming, granted Lukaku didn’t particularly move much, but it’s more than just Lukaku, he often has looked isolated when being played as a lone striker, there needs to be partnerships formed, drills and sequences done on the training ground and more urgency to try and link up with the striker, It seems that Mateo Kovacic is one of the only players that has a current link up and idea of Lukaku’s movements and instincts, when Kovacic was subbed on, he immediately spotted a space in behind the defence which Lukaku anticipated and shot at Butland which forced a save and a ziyech rebound goal, however it was offside, but is it really a coincidence that Lukaku plays better with Kovacic? Would we be having this conversation about Lukaku having so little touches if Kovacic started as one of the 8’s?
Chelsea will hope to perform much better against Lille on Tuesday night, as this was not a good performance overall and a brilliant finish from Ziyech gave much needed relief to Chelsea and their fans, the question remains, if these performances continue, do Chelsea get dragged into a race for 4th? Currently they are 7 points ahead of Manchester United in 4th, but could be cut to 4 should they defeat Leeds tomorrow afternoon, and Arsenal, the surprise consistent package of late, are 8 points behind Chelsea with 2 games in hand, Chelsea will want to comfortably finish 3rd or even 2nd, however being 7 points behind Liverpool is no easy feat to catch considering the likes of Sadio Mane, Mohamed Salah and Luis Diaz are providing the attacking ammunition to pull them to victories that Tuchel’s side seem to lack.
