Chelsea: Batshuayi, Conte overcome another worst-in-show Blues defence
Chelsea FC managed to pull themselves together against a fantastic Watford side and secure a much needed victory against the surprisingly high-achieving Hornets.
Chelsea’s defence has been an unmitigated disaster of the majority of the season. They have been unorganized and weak the entire season. David Luiz looks worse than he did in his Playstation days, and Antonio Rudiger – for all his athleticism – still seems weak and unproductive in the air.
Gary Cahill just is not taking on the captaincy very well at all. Coupled with Thibaut Courtois, they are an embarrassment. Had Watford been able to punish them a little bit more ruthlessly for their insolvent and ridiculous organization and marking, Chelsea wold have lost this match.
That said, wow did the rest of Chelsea dig deep to find a way to win this match. It would have been easy to throw in the towel when Watford leveled and then went ahead. That is what many people in the stands and at home were expecting. Chelsea found a way to make the most of what was a pretty back-and-forth match.
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Chelsea’s higher level of quality up front won this match. The team looked entirely different with the positive spirit of Michy Batshuayi on the pitch instead of Alvaro Morata. Morata is a quality player but spent most of this match rolling around on the floor, moaning and then gesticulating with his fingers. He will have to learn soon enough that referees are even less likely to give him any support if he acts like a spoiled brat about entirely fair – if rough – challenges in future.
Batshuayi has taken a lot of stick recently – from this writer among many – and he showed a massive improvement in the Watford match. When he first arrived on the pitch he immediately lost possession on a number of occasions, but he maintained that one important thing a striker must have: resilience of spirit.
He kept in the box and tried and tried again. He scored one classic poachers goal and then bundled home another. Every great striker knows most goals are not pretty. For every wonder goal you score, you score five poachers. Batshauyi was fantastic today and he made the difference. Well done.
Eden Hazard cursed himself recently with his ridiculous claim that he would start playing poorly. Hopefully he soon says he will start playing well. Cesar Azpilicueta thankfully was able to grab a goal to raise his spirits following what has been the worst period of his Chelsea career so far.
Tiemoue Bakayoko continues to show that despite the fact he is twice the size of Kante he could very well be half the man. He could be Patrick Viera, and yet for some reason continues to be Slavisa Jovanovic. Wonderment abounds.
This match ultimately is one Chelsea should be winning, so let’s not act too shocked by it. Watford are marvelously coached and benefitting greatly from their Mendes connection. But they are not the club Chelsea are.
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Half the players were awful and half the players were great. Hopefully, someday in the future, Chelsea are able to field an XI of players fully committed to the cause. But on this day, it appears six such players and some other paycheck collectors did fine.
Nice weather at the Bridge, as well.