Another final and another loss for Chelsea Football Club. It is becoming a recurring theme now for this football club in recent years to fall at the final hurdle and with a Champions League Final on the horizon against arguably the best team in the world in Manchester City, Chelsea’s recent finals record is a grim read.
Toothless, complacent, lethargic, and slow are some of the words that could be used to describe the performance from Chelsea. An occasion where upwards of 6,000 Chelsea fans were present, the Chelsea players certainly let themselves down and let the fans down. This was not the performance of a team playing a competitive game let alone a cup final and one can only wonder why this was the case.
There are many factors to look at for the loss to Leicester and I choose to focus on three major reasons why I believe Chelsea lost this final and might continue to lose finals if care is not taken.
1. Big Players, Big Moments?
This team lacks big players for the big moments, and it is becoming a broken record having to reiterate the lack of a strong mentality within this team needed to win finals.
Chelsea’s record in finals since Didier Drogba’s first initial departure in the summer of 2012 is that they have played 16 and won only four of them. It is important to mention that one of those wins came in a league final game against Tottenham where Didier Drogba actually made an appearance after he returned for a year in the 2015-2016 season. This is an alarming win rate of 25% in finals without Drogba.
Cesar Azpilicueta has been the club captain in seven finals since the departure of John Terry in the 2016-17 season and has only managed to lift a trophy on one occasion. This current crop of Chelsea players largely underperform in the big occasions, a quality so far from the identity molded under the likes of Ashely Cole, Petr Cech, Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba and John Terry.
Following the loss to Arsenal during the week, many expected Chelsea to be fired up for this final and to put out a good performance, but fans received the total opposite, putting immense pressure on them to mainly not miss out on the top four with their next league game being on Tuesday against Leicester and the Champions League Final game against Manchester City.
2. Thomas Tuchel’s Tinkering?
Pep Guardiola has often been criticized for some of the decisions he has made in pivotal moments for Manchester City, tinkering and making changes where there simply was no need. Despite Tuchel’s very successful start to life in English football where we have seen him rotate his squad and seen him make lineup selections in direct response to the opponent he was facing he cannot be absolved of blame for today’s decisions.
Let’s start with the goalkeeping choice. Edouard Mendy has been the starting goalkeeper all season, with the second highest clean sheets in the Premier League and the second highest in Europe and on today’s occasion he should have played. This is not discrediting Kepa Arizabalaga, nor is it implying that he was at fault for the goal. However, in a final no matter the competition, you should play your first-choice option.
You have to question the decision to the ineffectual Marcos Alonso. You could argue that Ben Chilwell has been very impressive in recent weeks and an opportunity to face his former team could have been a psychological edge in favor of Chelsea. Tuchel also failed to switch Reece James and Cesar Azpilicueta. For the early parts of the game this proved to be a smart move as Jamie Vardy was more or less nullified as Tuchel probably did not want to see a repeat of last year’s final where Azpilicueta was run ragged and ended up injuring himself due to Pierre Emerick Aubameyang’s pace in behind. However, the game in the latter parts was crying out for more thrust and threat from the wider positions as Leicester totally congested the midfield area. This was a poor tactical misjudgment from Tuchel.
Finally, the final third of the pitch. Mason Mount had a poor game but has been a model of consistency throughout the season and is relatively one of the first names on the team sheet However, refusing to start Kai Havertz and possibly Christian Pulisic who excelled in last year’s cup final too can be questioned. Kai Havertz bar the Arsenal game was seemingly finding his feet in that false nine role and Chelsea lacked the ability to beat one or two players to create space something that probably only Pulisic excels at in the squad.
3. Timo Werner Is Not A No 9.
Timo Werner might just be the most polarizing player in world football. A hefty price tag, a huge reputation and room for so much growth, it would be an understatement to say that Chelsea did not expect more from Timo Werner. According to Transfermarkt Werner currently sits on 12 goals and 14 assists in all competitions. On the eye for a player in his first year in England, some might argue those are respectable numbers. However, there is far more to the story than the stats suggest.
He has missed the 18 big chances in the Premier League scoring only six in the competition and as the main man up front for Chelsea in a big final he again failed to deliver. Rather than miss a chance he failed to offer any threat at all which seems like another failed big money striker at Chelsea Football Club. If Chelsea wants to compete in the long run, signing a proven goal scorer with unquestionable ability is of the utmost priority as Werner has had enough chances to prove this.
There cannot be just one singular issue to the lack of cutting edge at Chelsea, but one thing for certain is that those issues are costing them silverware. All Chelsea can do is look to the Champions League Final. This is a club that wins trophies and even if they may be considered the underdogs in the game against Manchester City, the loss in the FA Cup final means that anything but a win will condemn this club to another trophyless season and failure of a campaign.