As Chelsea lose for a fifth time in six games - with an FA Cup game vs bottom of League One the exception - let's take a dive into what went wrong on this occasion
On Sunday evening, Chelsea fell to a 3-0 defeat at home to Manchester City on match day 32 of the Premier League season.
After an even first half where neither side particularly played very well, Liam Rosenior's side completerly folded in the second half, and were comphrehensively beaten and dominated.
So, what went wrong?
In the first half, there was clear space for Chelsea in central areas. The midfield pair of Rodri and Bernardo Silva is not the best defensively. The former should have been booked early on after Cole Palmer was able to spin away from him.
Yet, the Blues did not take advantage of that. After the aforementioned foul from Rodri, there were barely any opportunities where the team were able to overrun the visitors in those areas.
Simply put, there is just such a lack of quality in the side. Estevao is a kid, that's fine. He isn't going to be able to consistently decide games. But, that means the others need to step up. Pedro Neto is stealing a living on the other side.
It feels indicitive of the project. A youngster, naturally struggles, and there aren't senior leaders to get him through it. This is the legacy created by those upstairs, whether we like it or not.
Continuing with the wing issue, he isn't the best player, but it feels very unfair on Alejandro Garnacho that he cannot get a start over his Portuguese counterpart. That feels like another selection error from Rosenior.
After a disappointing few weeks of form before the international break, Andrey Santos was fortunate to start the game over Romeo Lavia. Not too long after the Belgian international came on as a sub, he created the team's best chance of the game with a through ball to Marc Cucurella. He simply has more quality than his Brazilian team mate.
In general, the high profile players are not performing well. As mentioned before, Palmer was unable to take advantage of a defensively vulnerable City midfield. Meanwhile, Moises Caicedo was at fault for the third goal, and was unable to make a positive impact on the game.
So, the better players are not performing, and nor are the worse players. Not a good recipe for winning games of football. The manager is also not performing, he continues to make several mistakes, whether it be his line up, in game management or tactics.
The good thing is that Caicedo was able to get through the game without a yellow card, and is now longer walking a suspension tightrope. Plus, Enzo Fernandez will now be available again and should surely slot straight into the team against United.
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