Chelsea: Quick observations on the costly stinkeroo against Brighton

Chelsea played a lackluster game vs. Brighton showing little enthusiasm or attacking flair (with one exception), and frankly, little entertainment. In short, they were lousy and came away with a truly disappointing nil-nil tie and one point. The attack showed little, excepting a shot by Kai Havertz playing again as a false nine, right into the keeper. The forwards made little headway against a bigger, stronger, tougher, and more determined (though far less talented) Brighton side. In fact, Brighton is a glorified Championship side that happens to be situated at present in the Premiership. It’s games like this that give Chelsea fans indigestion.

Brighton is not a talented side. At all. Yet, they stood toe-to-toe with a side that is in the FA Cup final and the Champions League semi-finals. They looked like neither. And Brighton had the better chances. The Blues looked more like a mid-table team, at best. Frankly, that’s not good enough for a club as talent-laden as Chelsea. Yet, a front-line of Pulisic, Havertz, and Ziyech could do little against a formidable and sizeable Brighton backline. Not sure if Chelsea had a single corner kick. They had no corner kicks in the first half that I recall. You’d think they were playing Bayern Munich. They weren’t.

In a bit of a surprise move, Tuchel, as admittedly has been suggested herein, chose to put Mason Mount into one of the twin pivots, No. 6’s. It was greeted here with enthusiasm. Yet, for all that this author thought it could deliver, it didn’t. Instead of assuming a more attacking role in that No. 6 position, Mount looked back rather than forward and played the traditional role. It was a mistake and looked it. Mount did little to take advantage of what he does best, attack. And at the 6, he could have added a dimension that has been lacking, except from the injured Mateo Kovacic, this season. In addition, Mount could attack and pass like Kova, yet actually provides a scoring threat in addition. In essence, he didn’t.

When you can say when the Blues’ best-attacking player was a central defender. If so, you know you had a real problem in the attack. Rudiger was. And they did. Chelsea’s best attacker was none other than Antonio Rudiger. Right. The left defender, Toni Rudiger. If not for Rudiger’s pacey drives upfield, the attack was pretty much non-existent. It was nice to see (once again) that talent being displayed by Rudiger. If Thomas Tuchel, Chelsea’s manager, isn’t encouraging that he’s missing an opportunity. A great opportunity.

I have an issue here not with Tuchel’s team selection necessarily (though I don’t see what Edouard Mendy did to lose his starting Premier League position) but in his waiting too long to make the necessary changes. What was clear to all viewing spectators wasn’t clear to Tuchel. This team selection just wasn’t working. No goals. Almost no shots on goal. No attack evident. Make the moves, TT! What seemed to be missing was the much-maligned Timo Werner’s pace. It was nowhere to be seen among Chelsea’s starting team in the first half.

It took Tuchel 66 minutes to shake things up a bit (far too long) and make the changes he should frankly have made at half time introducing Callum Hudson-Odoi and Timo Werner into the squad. Olivier Giroud should have started this game, for sure. But for some reason, as with Frank Lampard early last season, he has been put into the deep freeze by Tuchel. Today’s game was a perfect opportunity for Giroud to be a force the whole game against a bigger, tougher Brighton side. He will joust with anyone. Tuchel missed the boat. It wasn’t until the 76th minute that he even entered the tilt.

All-in-all, Tuchel’s mismanagement against Brighton cost two very necessary points toward qualifying for the Champions League next season. He may look back on this game as a missed opportunity and a debacle on the way to Europa League participation in 2022 and millions of lost pounds in the equation. That won’t go over well with the board. At all. It was an opportunity missed against a very poor side. The effort should have been better. Much better. For sure.