Sheffield United 2-2 Chelsea: 3 Blues Talking Points

Defensive woes no matter the personnel

Benoit Badiashile was responsible for the last-minute equalizer, adding to an overall poor defensive performance from Chelsea. It's evident that regardless of who plays at the back, Chelsea struggles defensively.

Thiago Silva's absence from the starting XI has prompted discussions among CFC supporters about whether Chelsea are "better off with or without" the veteran. Sunday evening's match proved that the identity of the defender doesn't significantly alter the defensive performance.

The Blues have been notably vulnerable at the back in recent weeks, a trend that continued in South Yorkshire. It all started with Thiago Silva's errant pass, which gifted Ben Brereton Diaz the first chance of the match for Sheffield United. This mistake bolstered the previously struggling Sheffield United, who began creating opportunities and ultimately earned their equalizer through Jayden Bogle. Every member of Chelsea's backline—Silva, Axel Disasi, Marc Cucurella, and Trevoh Chalobah—struggled. Chelsea have now conceded two or more goals in all competitions for the last seven matches.

Horrible Game Management

It has reached a point where Mauricio Pochettino seems out of his depth at this club. Some of his tactical choices against statistically (given the Argentine's affection for statistics) one of the worst teams to ever play in the Premier League, with 82 goals conceded and counting, such as closing shop and trying to cling on to a narrow win, exemplify everything wrong at the club. This is just one of the issues CFC fans have expressed their opinions on. The decision to play Gallagher and Cucurella on the left and allow them to attack that flank was obviously going to backfire. There was absolutely no threat down the wing, forcing reliance on isolated Palmer or Madueke to conjure up some magic, which didn’t happen often due to Sheffield winning the ball off the visitors' careless passing.

The teams eventually went into the break with the scores even at 1-1, and immediate changes were needed from Poch’s team, which, of course, didn’t happen. There was no impact made on the pitch until individual brilliance from Madueke gave the Blues the lead once more. Shortly after, Pochettino made some changes, but here's the kicker: he substituted both Cole Palmer and Noni Madueke to allow Gallagher to continue playing on the wing. At one point, the Blues had only one attacker left on the pitch in Mykhailo Mudryk and despite that, CFC would still go on to concede in the most idiotic way possible.