Liam Rosenior's Chelsea side condemned to an embarrassing defeat at Stamford Bridge in the final game on Sunday, as Manchester City have just too much
On Sunday afternoon, in the Premier League's prime time slot, Chelsea hosted Manchester City on match day 32 of the season.
For the task at hand, Liam Rosenior opted for an XI of Sanchez, Gusto, Fofana, Hato, Cucurella, Caicedo, Santos, Estevao, Palmer, Neto, and Joao Pedro.
The opening stages saw Palmer looking sharp as he tried to get on the ball and make things happen. Around the ten-minute mark, he spun away from Rodri, drawing a foul but inexplicably without a booking for the Manchester City midfielder.
Then, after 16 minutes, Chelsea thought they had the lead. A brilliant through ball from Pedro found Cucurella in behind, and he fired a low effort past Gianluigi Donnarumma, but the left-back had made his run slightly early. An avoidable offside.
With the final action of the half, Santos headed home a presentable opportunity from a free-kick. Truth be told, that was the one real chance of the half for either side. A tough watch.
Five minutes into the second half, City took the lead. An inswinging cross from Rayan Cherki was met by Nico O'Reilly at the far post, who got there ahead of Santos to head home the opener.
Fewer than 10 minutes later, it was 2-0. Cobham graduate Marc Guehi clinically finished into the bottom corner, with Cherki again the provider. Something fitting about a Chelsea academy player scoring vs this expensively assembled squad.
Around midway through the half, a cutback fell to Palmer, but his shot was well blocked by Guehi. He could have shown more urgency to get his strike off, and perhaps the effort wouldn't have had the chance to be blocked.
Two minutes later, it was 3-0. Sanchez threw the ball out to Caicedo, who was completely suffocated by the City press, lost the ball, and Jeremy Doku slotted the ball home.
There was a great chance to reduce the deficit late on, after Cucurella was found in behind thanks to a lovely lofted pass from substitute Romeo Lavia, but Donnarumma was there to get in the way.
Well, that would be that. A 3-0 defeat at home. After 32 rounds of Premier League action, Chelsea are just one point above both Brentford and Everton, just two points above Brighton and Hove Albion and newly promoted Sunderland, and three points above AFC Bournemouth.
There's your project, everyone. Going very well, clearly. Onto Manchester United next Saturday night.
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