Chelsea: Blues draw level after a shoddy first-half effort

Lots of questions for the Blues as Chelsea comes out flat and gets steamrolled by West Brom before recovering for a highly unsatisfying tie.

The final score is in, Chelsea three  (this writer’s prediction), West Brom three (not this writer’s prediction. It was zero. Brilliant!). The Blues (and hot pinks) came out of the dressing room in the first half as flat as a tire with five nails in it. They were overwhelmed and down by a 3-nil score after about 27 minutes by a seemingly faster, more decisive, and frankly better West Brom team at the Hawthornes.

A point from which was only rescued by a late Tammy Abraham goal which frankly seemed rather meaningless at that point. This latest poor effort leaves the Blues currently five points off the top after three games and trailing powerhouses like Everton and Crystal Place. More clubs at whom Chelsea will be looking up will be added after tomorrow’s games are played. This is anything but an auspicious debut for the Blues who have spent upwards of $300 million dollars in this current transfer window. The club’s owner must be “thrilled” at the early returns on this massive spending spree. It’s been a comedy of errors.

Willy Caballero was in goal and he did little to help matters by stopping the Baggies from soaring ahead. Seems like he’d have needed arms a good two-meters longer to have been able to save a couple of their efforts. He wasn’t close. And who would have thought that one of the best center backs in the world, Thiago Silva, would give up a howler of a second goal and gift the Baggies a    2-nil lead. That disaster was followed up quickly by a third and the game was all but lost at that point.

If you had had a late start to tune into the broadcast (if you could actually find it with all the moving and shifting of channels of the Premier League games, if you can even get the game on TV at all in the US), you were out of luck after the 27+ minute mark. The beer probably wasn’t even cold yet and the Blues and Hot Pinks (those reverse Palace kits are awful and made them look slower than they actually were, and that was slow) were already looking up at a three-goal deficit. Hope for a win for all practical purposes was gone right then and there.

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To make matters even worse, none of Chelsea’s high-priced additions have yet to pot a goal for the club. Timo Werner needs a laser-guidance system to get a ball on goal though seems to come close early and often but he still hasn’t opened his account. And, his hat trick against Barnsley notwithstanding, neither has Kai Havertz or any other of the newbies. For once, it would be nice to see some immediate returns on transfer investments but that nicety seems to elude the Blues in an ongoing manner.

Can’t blame Kepa Arrizabalaga for this one. Caballero shoulders the burden though the defense contributed mightily, as well. Those who’ve suggested that the defense was just fine last season can’t say the same about this game. Weak and poor would be good characterizations. And West Brom narrowly missed another goal to win the game when a late shot went just wide left with nary a Caballero in sight. On target, and it was a goal too.

On the keeper situation, if ever a team needed an infusion of a keeper with great length it was amply on display in this abomination. Thankfully, they just signed one who just might fit the bill in Edouard Mendy. Mendy has to start immediately, meaning at Tottenham on Tuesday in the EFL Cup game. Forget it if he hasn’t trained much if, at all with the club, the Blues need a keeper who can win them games not be a detriment to any chance whatsoever. Hopefully, Mendy can help right a ship that is floundering early and may face disaster if he flops. But at least the Blues faithful can probably agree that his amazing height and length alone should deliver improvement.

On the plus side if there were any pluses when you tie a team like West Brom, are a couple of possibilities. First, the team showed resilience in the face of an out-and-out disaster. That’s a good trait. Yet, why was this team not ready to compete at their second-half level at the outset? This lack of readiness has to be put at the feet of the manager, Frank Lampard to some extent and of course to the players themselves. The team was not ready to play from the get-go. It had better be going forward or the club may find itself effectively out-of-the picture for contention in the league by the end of November.

A second positive was the play of the much-maligned and ignored Callum Hudson-Odoi. Why he hasn’t been given a full runout by Lampard in light of current injuries is a good question regardless of his reported or insinuated poor training habits. He was a spark for the club in the second half and opened his account with a beautiful goal. The youngster has to get consistent Premier League match action and should be the unquestioned starter on either wing until the injured Christian Pulisic and Hakim Ziyech are back. Even then, a place has to be found for Hudson-Odoi. He’s just too good a talent to go the way of Kevin De Bruyne, Mohamed Salah, or Romelu Lukaku. That can’t be allowed to happen again with Hudson-Odoi. The young man must play early and often. There is no reason to use any of Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Mason Mount, or Kai Havertz as a winger. None. Hudson-Odoi is the better choice.

It should also be obvious to any Chelsea observer that good things happen when Olivier Giroud is inserted into a game. Yet, once again, as in last season. Lampard seemingly refuses to give Giroud starts though he’s effective each and every time he’s on the pitch. Lampard’s starting squad selections can and should often be called into question. Keeping Giroud in mothballs is one decision that should be raised early and often. He has to play. It’s as simple as that. When he does, the Blue team usually wins.

Another game, another poor showing. All the excuses about the team jelling don’t warrant a 3-0 nil drubbing in a half by the Baggies. This team seems to play one good half and one throw-away almost every game. Until Lampard can energize and galvanize this group to play a full 90+ minutes, we can expect more of the same.

Hopefully, by then, it won’t be too late to contend in the Premier League and elsewhere for silverware. A good place to start would be at Tottenham on Tuesday in the Cup game. Short turnaround. Sorry, that’s the way things are. It’s time to put in a full-game effort and it’s time to insert a keeper who might just help in goal. That would be Mendy. Tuesday would be just fine for both.