Chelsea falters at home, scoreless again, as PSG watches their Champions League rival's struggles.
While PSG prepared quietly for their Champions League round of 16 second leg, Chelsea experienced a completely failed Saturday: a home defeat, no goals scored, and a total absence of rotation.
It was warm after their morning training session that PSG was able to see their future European opponent, Chelsea, experience a Saturday where absolutely nothing went the Blues' way. Because barely three days after the heavy defeat conceded in Paris (2-5), the Londoners lost again, this time against Newcastle United (0-1), and at home no less. Not the best preparation for the hoped-for feat Tuesday evening against Paris.
It was following a rather enormous defensive error, with a gaping hole right in the heart of the defense, that Anthony Gordon scored the only goal of the match in the 18th minute. The Blues had a lot of possession, ultimately did little with it, and were also very clumsy, with only three shots on target out of more than 20 attempts. Reece James even hit the post with a long-range free kick at the very end of the game but the Blues remained scoreless.
Started again, João Pedro confirmed his fatigue seen on Wednesday evening at the Parc des Princes, and it was not Liam Delap, who came on, who revived himself since the English attacker showed the same clumsiness as for weeks, and Cole Palmer was in the same vein as in Paris, therefore imprecise in front of goal. Deployed on the left side in place of the suspended Pedro Neto, a scenario that could be repeated on Tuesday evening, Alejandro Garnacho did not particularly shine either.
The worst for Chelsea probably came from the fact that this defeat was conceded by their usual starters. Liam Rosenior had only changed two players from the eleven that imploded in the last 20 minutes in Paris, namely, goalkeeper Jörgensen was replaced by Sanchez, and Neto by Garnacho. No rotation or almost, worn-out players, and morale at an all-time low. The same Rosenior had the audacity after the match to explain that his team lacked "mental freshness to unlock the defense."
During the match, the London coach did make a few changes to conserve his troops, but it was more due to the match scenario than a real desire to conserve players who seemed to be tiring: Gusto was replaced at halftime by Delap to bring weight up front, while Caicedo came out on the hour mark because he was already booked. Finally, Hato replaced Fofana to bring offensive volume at the end of the game.
The big change in goal, with the return of Robert Sanchez at the expense of Filip Jörgensen, had a positive effect, as the Spaniard proved himself solid. But it was not the result of a coach's choice since the Dane, heavily involved in the goals conceded at the Parc des Princes, was actually injured: "Filip felt some groin discomfort yesterday in training," the coach explained after the match. It remains to be seen who will be in goal against Paris now.