What We Learned: this past week plus loss to PSG in Champions league

After a turbulent week in which the Blues suffered two back to back losses in the premier league and Champions league, Jose Mourinho will look to inspire his side to a win over Stoke in the premier league and hope to pull out a win to help us advance against PSG like we did against Napoli in 2012. Chelsea have not given up then and should not give up this time as well knowing anything can happen at Stamford Bridge in front of our home support.

But, what were the causes of the defeat in PARIS and what major events did we take out of the match? This questions will be answered in this latest What We Learned and we apologize in first hand for the late publication.

A Lack of a deadly striker up front was the difference between the two sides:

Looking at the line-ups of both teams, we could have thought every thing is matched up pretty well except for the striker position. While the French giants can call on Ibrahimovic and Cavani up front for goals as well as Lavezzi, We had Fernando Torres benched and Schurrle (a natural winger) started the game instead. The message before and after the game from Jose Mourinho was very clear. The Blues lack a striker and Fernando Torres isn’t the right man to lead the front line of Chelsea.

Despite insisting he does think the Spaniard has a future at Stamford Bridge, Jose Mourinho said the reason he started Schurrle was to have at leats one more player to associate with others up front. Unless, Samuel Eto’o recovers well and quickly to return with a bang, our striking line could leave us finishing without a single trophy this season.

Nemanja Matic missed in midfield: 

Another thing we noticed is that Matic was sorely missed especially in such kind of game where the midfield could have decided the winner of the game. The Serbian’s aerial superiority over a lot of his opposition players make him a great fit for interceptions and he could have dominated possession as well as stopping the passes that were being channeled in to Ibrahimovic, Cavani and Lavezzi.

This shows that the Serbian is the best man for the pivot role along side Ramires and it’s that starting line up we are going to see next year as Jose Mourinho is fixing his puzzle with missing jigsaws for his line up to conquer all next season.

We Should be wary of their attacking players in the second leg:

Edinson Cavani and Lavezzi were as dangerous as they come on Wednesday even though Ibrahimovic was silent through out the game surprisingly before he made way for Lucas Moura after suffering a hamstring injury. This attacking threat from PSG should have been in the spot light and as a result we could have played a defensive system not to conceded by taking risks.

Jose Mourinho was forced to make his team play an attacking game by risking it all since we conceded early and those kind of sloppy goals aren’t a good events in important games such as this one.

We aren’t on a par with PSG this season even though the tie is not over yet:

All the people who witnessed the Blues pull a miracle at the Bridge by coming back from losing 3-1 in the first leg against Napoli in 2012, can claim that the Blues never give up. Jose Mourinho has sent out the same message after the game including all the players. Calling for support from fans at the Bridge to help us qualify and advance to the semi finals of the tournament no matter how hard it may sound.

But, the point we can’t deny is that PSG are on a level above us at least for this moment with the profile of squad they have. PSG is a team that can call up players like Lucas Moura and Javier Pastore from the bench while we are struggling for a top player to provide the goals up front. One or two top signings may change this after the summer but, for now we just have to concede their squad is a lot stronger than ours.

 We must be optimistic and hopeful till the end of the season no matter what: 

With the premier league chances fading away slowly as Liverpool are on a roll leading the table and Man City having two more games over us, we must be hopeful to dominate the league starting from the next season as we have the best manager in the world that can build a winning team for decades. As he said it himself, it may not be possible this year, but we definitely can win strongly next season. Our performances against all the top sides in the premier league this season including the incredible two wins against Man City proves that we are a much for any team in the world on our day.

But, we seem to lack that consistency up top in the striker line and a new major signing should solve that for Mourinho’s team. We may still have a chance in the Champions league if we pull out a come back victory to advance against PSG, we might witness what we saw in 2012 and see the Blues lift the trophy against the odds. And it’s all possible when you have Jose Mourinho.

Thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed. Comment your opinion and let us know what you think. KTBFFH