Chelsea (Away) 03.04.2025

Many of the bookings were for dissent and handbags, which in truth were out of place in this encounter that lacked much of the blood and thunder of previous meetings.  It was another limp performance by Tottenham, which is worrying, although not that we might get relegated, as I think those places will fill themselves, but for the fact that the longer these performances go on, it looks more and more likely that the manager will be the one to pay for the players looking like they have never set foot on a football pitch as an eleven.  The lack of understanding is frightening and there is nothing like the attacking force the team looked like in the earlier stages of the season.

Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven were back in the middle of the defence, but inside a minute a long ball down the middle caught them out and saw Jackson latch onto it and while Vicario came out to block his touch, it rebounded off the Chelsea striker after van de Ven tried to clear it and the ball cannoned off the post. The West London fans were celebrating in the seventh minute when a cross was headed out to Gusto, who fired it into the side netting of the outside of the goal.

Vicario got lucky when he looked to pass the ball out and hit it straight to Neto, but the ball bounced off him to a white shirt.  Vic then dived out to punch away a cross that he could have caught as he was under no pressure and Spurs were not having much time on the ball.  Domonic Solanke went down in the box when Rodrigo Bentancur played a ball in, but nothing was given.

The home team nearly took the lead with 18 minutes gone when Palmer’s low ball not the goalmouth from inside the left of the box saw Fernandez closing in on it, but Destiny Udogie did really well to get across him to get something on it and Vicario grabbed the ball in front of his goal-line.  Having done well there, there was still a nervousness about Guglielmo’s play as he put too much weight on a simple pass to Romero and out for a throw-in.

Jackson shrugged off a challenge from Djed Spence and shot over the top from the edge of the box and then Vicario was once again less than convincing when a corner to the far post was patted down for Jackson, but he couldn’t do anything with it.  We were too passive in the first half and allowed Chelsea to play the ball around without too much co-ordinated pressing and when we had the ball it wasn’t retained for any length of time.  The Chelsea crowd were on their players’ backs all the time with Sancho the main target of their frustration, but any ball that went backwards was jeered.

On a rare foray forward, Son got past Gusto and put a ball into the six yard box that Sanchez pushed out, but, fortunately for him, it was to one of his defenders.  Spurs had grown into the match as the half went on but a minute before half-time a long right wing cross went over everyone to Sancho at the far post and he had time to take it down before shooting at the bigger part of the goal to Vicario’s left.  He showed just what he does well with a fantastic reflex save to push the ball over the bar.  The corner was cleared and Colwill held onto the ball when a foul was given against Chelsea and Romero tried to get it, with the Chelsea man going down like he had been hit by a bus.  This started the blue shirts getting around Cristian to try and provoke him, with Chalobah the main protagonist, with both of them seeing a yellow card waved in their direction after a lot of pushing and shoving by most of the outfield players.  No booking for Colwill though even though he was “delaying the restart”. 

At the start of the second half, Romero slipped as a free-kick was played into the box, but luckily the Chelsea players weren’t alive to it and in the next attack, Vicario saved easily from Palmer, but when the ball was recycled the same Chelsea player crossed from the left wing and Fernandez had an unchallenged header to give the home team the lead.  Being allowed a free header right in front of goal is something that just shouldn’t happen.

It looked to have got worse as a free-kick was headed out and Caicedo hit a right foot volley from inside the 18 yard line that gave Vicario no chance. A four minute VAR decided in the end that Colwill had been offside, so the goal was ruled out.

With Sarr going down in the box after a challenge from Caicedo, the two then engaged in a bit of a heated discussion with Fernandez entering into the fray by pushing Sarr a couple of times in the chest.  Play restarted with a Chelsea free-kick that was lumped forward, where Djed won a head and Solanke got the loose ball with a challenge on Caicedo in the air.  The ball was picked up by Pape Matar Sarr, who had only been on the field a couple of minutes and he moved forwards, striking a low shot from 25 yards out that Sanchez couldn’t get down to and diving to his left could only divert the ball up into the roof of the net.  Immediately the Chelsea players surrounded the referee wanting a foul for Dom’s challenge, despite this supposedly being out-lawed and players who weren’t the captain nagging the man in black until the VAR official Gillett telling Pawson to have a look on the monitor.  It could only mean one thing and that was proven when he ruled out the goal.  He even gave Sarr a yellow card for the foul, which wasn’t something VAR are  supposed to be there for.  Cucurella did get booked for dissent, which frankly should be a starting point for him in any match.  

Neto joined him in the book for clearing out Son on the edge of the Chelsea box, but Maddison’s free-kick hit the wall and when another long ball put Gusto in on the left, a cross came in that Vicario had to push out as it looked like it might have crept in under the bar at the far post.

Johnson put a ball across the face of goal to the far post where Son came in and Sanchez dived across to block his shot. This preceded the fourth official showing 12 minutes to be played in addition to the 90.  This brought a further defender on for the home side to make a back five to try and see the game through. And they did.  There were two late bookings for Johnson and Porro for dissent when the linesman wrongly awarded a free-kick when it should have been a corner.  Perhaps they need VAR to make these decisions for them ? 

It wasn’t as though Chelsea didn’t deserve to win, but they didn’t over-power Tottenham, they just eased through the match.  There is little fluidity to our play and it may be that the 4-3-3 is not working, whereas a flexible five at the back with the two full backs being allowed to overlap with three in midfield so they don’t get over-run and two up top to occupy the opposition defence might be better, but then Ange is sticking to his guns and isn’t going to change (although the latter formation is similar to that which he fielded last season).

When Bergvall and Odobert were substituted, the chant of “You don’t know what you’re doing” was aimed at Postecoglou, but the Swede had just come off a illness that wiped him out for a week and Odobert wasn’t getting much joy, so the manager was trying to change things with Johnson putting a couple of dangerous balls into the box.  Things got worse when the goal was disallowed and he put his hand to his ear.  

The lack of linked up play and the fact that Dominic Solanke spent the whole match running around chasing shadows with nothing provided to do what we signed him for was shocking.  With league games slipping away before the end of the season and only the Europa League to play for, it looks like ending up as another campaign without a trophy and a terrible position in the league.  That’s not good enough and with all the injury absences, there is some leeway for the position we find ourselves in, but the pattern of play in games such as this is poor and meant that it was a fairly straightforward win for Chelsea, who weren’t in great form, but were allowed to control the game for most of its 104 minutes.  If you aren’t playing well, then show some grit and effort to get the crowd on your side.  I’m not suggesting that the team aren’t trying, but more is needed from them to show that there is some fight to win games.

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