Chelsea: Three lessons from the second league loss of the season

Chelsea was unable to get through Everton’s well set up defensive structure. What lessons were learned as the Blues took their second league loss?

Chelsea took on Everton at Goodison Park with the Blues looking to avenge last season’s embarrassing 3-1 loss in this exact fixture. In what was coincidentally Frank Lampard’s 50th Premier League match in charge of Chelsea, the away side ultimately failed to take advantage of the opportunity to return to the top of the table as a first half. A Glyfi Sigurdsson penalty proved enough to see Everton take home all three points. With poor performances from many of Chelsea’s key players and no fit wingers available for selection, here are the lessons learnt from Everton 1, Chelsea 0.

1. Frank Lampard’s managerial milestone

The Chelsea manager’s tenure at the club reached a significant milestone on Saturday, having now managed 50 Premier League games. While the team’s 1-0 loss to Everton is certainly disappointing, it is far from indicative of just how far Lampard’s side have come since his appointment on the Fourth of July last year. Usually dominant when in possession and confident when in defense, Chelsea’s 17 game unbeaten run prior to Saturday’s loss is sufficient demonstration of just how strong Lampard’s team has grown into.

Nonetheless, the narrow loss to Everton serves as a timely reminder of the development that still has to take place for this Chelsea side to be truly considered as title contenders. Everton had set themselves up to defend and hit Chelsea on the break and Mendy’s early concession of a penalty played perfectly into the hands of the home side.

That said, the best sides often pride themselves in being consistently able to pick apart low blocks. Chelsea’s failure to do so here hence served as a throwback to the season just past when a lack of individual quality really hurt the team’s ability to break teams down. On Saturday, a similar inability of Chelsea’s new signings such as Kai Havertz and Timo Werner to provide that something special, so crucial in tight matches like this, ultimately meant a first loss for the club in almost three months.

The match against Everton aside, the Chelsea of this season have nevertheless shown remarkable development since the start of last season. Goals Conceded per 90 has dropped drastically from 1.42 to 1.00 while goals scored has increased from 1.82 to 2.1. Moreover, Chelsea’s win or draw percentage has likewise risen from 62 percent to 83 percent this term. These are all positive signs that the team is heading in the right direction and as undesirable as Saturday’s result was, the upwards trajectory of this team thus far holds great promise for the future under Frank Lampard.