Chelsea 2-2 West Brom: Not good enough!
Chelsea were not good enough on Saturday. To slow in possession, lacking a final ball, no urgency and managed to escape defeat with a pen...
https://www.chelseadaft.org/2013/11/chelsea-2-2-west-brom-not-good-enough.html?m=0
Chelsea were not good enough on Saturday. To slow in possession, lacking a final ball, no urgency and managed to escape defeat with a penalty decision that was more than generous!
The two goals Chelsea conceded were an absolute joke! How on earth we can allow a free header from 8 yards out in the first place is scandalous enough but to then allow Shane Long the time to stroll up and have a second free header virtually a yard from goal makes it even worse!
As for the second, Petr Cech gets his positioning all wrong and rather than get his body behind his attempt to save it, manages to let a what seems like a simple save to make squirm through his hands and into the back of the net!
The thing that really frustrated me watching that performance was the lack of urgency in our play. We never pushed forward onto West Brom enough and pressed them which in turn allowed them to knock the ball about. When we did do it on the rare occasion, we nicked the ball off of them and broke forward but again wasted those moments.
The opposition had it easy on Saturday and because of our lack of tempo or pace in our game, we able to sit back and soak up the pressure. Time and time again we saw the ball move from side to side with no real end product and Ivanovic needs to sort out his crosses into the box and they were very poor.
Once again at times just as with Newcastle away last week, we are seeing too many flicks and tricks when the simple option looks to be the better to play. If we moved the ball forward quicker than we did, we could have really opened them up and dragged their midfield all over the place.
Our goal was another opportunistic one from Eto'o and fair play to him for not giving up and being alive to any possible rebound from Hazard's shot.
You would think Chelsea would then dominate the game after the break and look to increase the tempo. As time moved on into the half, West Brom would have needed to start to chase the game and it would have opened up. Once again though we lacked a cutting edge in the final third and with 20 or so minutes to go found ourselves two down!
It was only then that Chelsea played quicker, moved the ball forward with real purpose and created better chances. Ivanovic and Mata were denied from close range, Willian headed over the bar from six yards out and god knows what Demba Ba was trying to do with a fiercely hit cross by Gary Cahill! All he had to do was connect with some part of his body but tried to flick the ball home instead and missed it all ends up!
The penalty was generous to say the least and I wouldn't have been surprised to see it not being given. It was an Hazard kept his nerve and slotted the ball passed the keeper to save Chelsea blushes and Jose Mourinho's home record!
As it turned out, we actually gained a point on our title rivals around us after results yesterday but it's not good enough.
Chelsea have been awful for two weeks running and have taken just a single point from a possible six. Once again for me it's all about the tempo of our game and having that cutting edge. We had it in bucket loads in October but it's disappeared so far in November!
We need it back and quickly!
Carefree & KTBFFH!