Chelsea’s defenders allowed Ajax to score four goals, but they scored two of their own and the left back nearly had the winner to go with the right back’s equalizer. Seriously, nothing about that game made sense.
Chelsea’s set piece curse took an unusual turn as the Blues conceded their almost-usual two goals from set pieces, but this time both were own goals – by the striker and the goalkeeper. If Lewis Carroll wrote about football he would have written this game’s script.
Kepa Arrizabalaga, Goalkeeper: 5.5
This is a perfect example of what we’ve been talking about increasingly regularly when it comes to Kepa Arrizabalaga. He conceded four goals against Ajax, but can we really – fairly – hang all four on him?
The first was deflected at close range by his own player. Arrizabalaga had the flight of the ball well-measured and could have handled it if no player made contact. Tammy Abraham should have made clean contact to clear it to safety. But on the other hand, Arrizabalaga should have called for it so Abraham and the other players on the line could let him smother it. Once the ball nicked Abraham’s foot, there was nothing Arrizabalaga could do.
The second goal was perfectly headed after a perfect cross. Cesar Azpilicueta was ball-watching and did not stay close enough to Quincy Promes. But the pass and the shot were just that good, and at that range there’s little the keeper could do.
The third was a nearly perfectly placed shot (intentional or not), but because it was “nearly perfect” it bounced off the post, off Arrizabalaga’s face and into the net. Can’t fault a guy for that, can you? And the fourth was a well-worked play resulting in Chelsea’s defenders giving Donny van de Beek time and space for a point blank shot.
So at the most we can lay one goal fully at Arrizbalaga’s feet. But are we really in the business of exonerating a goalkeeper for four goals conceded? This is what we’re talking about with him. Either he sees only high quality, impossible-to-save shots, or he’s really below the standard people expected, perhaps temporarily.
Cesar Azpilicueta, Right back / Left back: 6 / 7.5
Azpilicueta committed the foul that resulted in the first goal, allowed Quincy Promes to run around him for the second and was not exempt from the overall sloppiness on both sides of the ball that marked Chelsea’s first half. Like the rest of the team he improved greatly in the second half, but even controlling for that team-wide improvement he still looked better on the left than on the right, even as Ajax continued to send more attacks down Chelsea’s left.
Of course, that’s just defensively. Azpilicueta scored a true poaching striker’s goal to start the comeback, barely staying on side to tap the ball into the corner of the net. VAR would not be so kind on what would have been the winning goal and an Azpilicueta brace. Perhaps its something about Chelsea’s overall structure that facilitates the left back – whoever that is – becoming a “false three.” The Spanish ones, at least.
For the last few weeks it’s been clear that Azpilicueta would not be making way any time soon for Reece James on an extended basis. Perhaps the real competition is not between Azpilicueta and James but between Azpilicueta and Marcos Alonso.
Fikayo Tomori, Centreback: 6.5
Tomori led the team in defensive actions but was still the more mistake-prone of the two central defenders. Ajax’s speed and aggression showed the limits of Tomori’s ability to recover from his mistakes, although he several times compounded them by pausing in frustration (confusion over an expected whistle?) while the play passed by him. Although Marcos Alonso committed the foul that led to the third goal, if he hadn’t Tomori was on the verge of doing so. Neither player controlled that sequence well, and we saw the result.
Kurt Zouma, Centreback: 6.5
Less than a week after we wrote about how Kurt Zouma is deceptively deft and highly underrated for his dribbling ability, Zouma opened the second half with the night’s top non-goal highlight. He dribbled at pace for at least 60 yards through all of Ajax’s lines but the final one. He finished his move with a Cristiano Ronaldo-esque scissor-step crossover before sending the ball into orbit.
Zouma did not put up the numbers that Tomori did, but he was the more solid of the two centrebacks. One thing he needs to work on is not passing the ball to Jorginho when Jorginho is facing Chelsea’s goal. Even Jorginho knows this is not the best position for him to receive and attempt to turn, and he tries to wave Zouma into other directions, but nevertheless, Zouma sometimes persists.
Marcos Alonso, Left back: 4
Marcos Alonso had his worst performance in a rather long time.
Re-read that sentence, note the importance of every word, every clause. Alonso has been consistently strong, smart and dependable on both sides of the ball for most of Chelsea’s last 10 games. He took perfect advantage of Emerson’s absence to make himself the first-choice left back, which is why he started against Ajax and Emerson played on the weekend against Watford. In the reverse fixture in Amsterdam he completely neutralized Sergino Dest, who did not even come off the bench at Stamford Bridge.
But on the basis of his first half, Frank Lampard may put Azpilicueta in the rotation for left back along with the two full-timers at that position.
Alonso made needless challenges and fouls in addition to the one that cost Chelsea the third goal. He did his usual good job of finding smart, creative positions on offence and to support the press, but too often failed to track back – something we regularly cite Emerson for doing. The Spaniard’s crosses were not accurate, his link-up play non-existent.
These games happen, this was just a particularly bad time and extent for it. How he and Lampard respond will be an interesting turn in the season.
Reece James, Right back (45′): 7.5
Frank Lampard’s halftime talk was the greatest single factor in the Blues’ second half performance. Every player played with more purpose, aggression, diligence and desire. Reece James did not cause the comeback any more than he caused the Blues to concede another goal before scoring three in the second half. But he personified Chelsea’s comeback, not least because he scored the equalizer.
This was the first game in which James looked like the player who won Wigan’s Player of the Season award. He was moving much more freely and explosively, passing and running off his teammates seamlessly, and as Chelsea built up the pressure helped tighten the vice on Ajax. His movement leading up to his goal, again, exemplifies his half.
James now has two goals for the senior team: one in the Carabao Cup, one in the Champions League. He will likely have a chance to open his Premier League account soon, and his offensive output should be one more reason for Frank Lampard to take another look at a three-man back-line.