Chelsea’s goals against: Cesar Azpilicueta stranded and scapegoated

Goal #3, 67′: Marcus Rashford on the counter-attack

This is where the Theatre of Dreams became the Theatre of the Absurd, at least as far as blaming Azpilicueta goes.

When Paul Pogba took the penultimate, plant step for his pass to Rashford, Andreas Christensen took a step forward. He moved towards the passer, 25 yards up field, instead of noting the intended recipient just off his right shoulder.

Perhaps Christensen was trying to play an offsides trap. If he was, he had little awareness of the rest of Chelsea’s line. Azpilicueta was just behind Christensen’s line and Zouma was just ahead of it closely marking Anthony Martial. That is to say, Chelsea had no real defensive line; or they did and simply were not communicating along it.

At times in the first half the centrebacks were spread wide, each within 10 yards of the touchline. Other times, Mateo Kovacic dropped between the centrebacks while the Blues played the ball out. Or did the centrebacks move up to flank Kovacic? As my colleague Travis tweeted during the game, Chelsea were copying Derby County’s defensive playbook last season: “Just somebody get on the ball and clear it, OK?!”

Regardless, Azpilicueta was nearest to Rashford and did his best to cover the ground behind him as Rashford brought the pass under control. As Rashford took his touch to move the ball into shooting position, Azpilicueta smartly came around Rashford’s right shoulder – his preferred shooting side – to try to put a foot in before the shot.

At every point in this play, Azpilicueta, the right back, was Chelsea’s deepest defender. Not the centre-backs. When the ball crossed the goal line, Andreas Christensen was the only other Blue in the frame. Kurt Zouma was too far behind the play to be within the camera angle.

This is a defensive high line gone wrong, compounded by a lack of midfielders closing down their opposing numbers. Mason Mount closed down Paul Pogba when he first took the ball off the Chelsea turnover, but Pogba easily drifted behind Mount while playing a one-two. This left Pogba unperturbed as Jorginho moved laterally, parallel with and 10 yards away from Pogba, never closing the distance to the Frenchman.

By not closing down Pogba nor committing himself to protecting the backline by letting Chelsea have a 2v3 defensive advantage, Pogba easily bypassed Jorginho’s no-man’s land to hit Rashford in the so-called half-space between the right centreback and right back.