It was a trip to forget for Chelsea as they suffered an embarrassing defeat to Newcastle United on Saturday. The hype created around the team during the international break has gone. The match was the opposite of what fans had seen in the two rounds before the break.
Not a fan would have expected such an awful performance from the Blues. It’s always one step forward and multiple steps backward for the men’s team. Here are a few negatives from the match.
1. Lack of discipline
It is a known fact among even the casual viewers of the premier league that kicking away the ball will result in a yellow card. Despite that, CFC had multiple players getting booked for it. Those are amateur-level mistakes.
A captain has responsibilities. When things go against the team, Reece James’s duty as the skipper is to keep it together. But at St. James’s Park, he failed at his job by earning himself a red card. The right-back was the only person with a non-error-prone match in the defence until that moment.
2. Defensive mistakes
The goal Manuel Akanji scored for Manchester City two weeks ago against Chelsea was due to poor marking. He got all the space in the world to head the ball into goal. A top-level coach like Mauricio Pochettino should ensure such a mistake will not happen again. Instead, they let Jamaal Lascelles score a similar goal. The back four selected yesterday were not away during the break, and as such, the blame is on the Argentine for not making them learn.
Magpies had a plan to make the most of Chelsea’s defensive instabilities. They targeted the left side with the knowledge that Raheem Sterling will not be tracking back if he is not in the mood. Mistakes like not closing down the attacker and failing to keep the backline helped Newcastle.
3. When will Chelsea learn to make use of gifts?
At top-level football, silly mistakes will affect the team massively. Arsenal started their comeback against the Blues after a mistake from Roberto Sanchez. Earlier that match, Cole Palmer failed to make the most out of two mistakes before Declan Rice’s goal.
Saturday was the same. Conor Gallagher was gifted a chance twice. He failed to punish the hosts before a silly mistake from Thiago Silva was converted into a goal by Joelinton.
Every team loves mistakes from the opposition. While most players make the most of it, Chelsea’s players are incapable of the same.
There was one tiny Chelsea positive among the negatives
1. Freekick goal
There was not much positive from the match. But the goal scored by Sterling was one. Ever since Marcos Alonso left, the west Londoners have had trouble scoring such goals. The effort that beat Nick Pope was the sole positive from a forgettable outing for the west London side.