• May 2, 2022
• McKyleCFC

Chelsea travelled to Goodison Park to face Frank Lampard’s 18th placed Everton. By contrast Thomas Tuchel’s Chelsea began the day in third with a six point cushion from Arsenal chasing in fourth and Tottenham in fifth. A win would’ve meant a firmer hold onto the third spot. However, what followed was a complacent and uninspired performance by Tuchel’s travelling Blues. Both teams went into halftime level at 0-0 but Everton got the decisive goal soon after restart in the second half with the clock showing just 46 minutes. Thanks to Everton’s goalkeeper Jordan Pickford’s heroics, Everton were able to hang onto this lead. Pickford denied Chelsea several equalizers including a point-blank save on the goal line itself. In the end Everton saw off the 7-minute injury time with relative ease, securing a hard fought win. Here’s how we think the Chelsea’s players fared.

Goalkeeper: Mendy not at fault, but not blameless

Mendy – While not necessarily at fault for the goal itself, fact remains he did get beaten while Pickford put in a MOTM performance at the other end, making some world class saves, including a sequence of blocks that will be contender for saves of the season, putting his body on the line to ensure Everton’s win and possibly giving them a desperately needed lifeline to defy relegation even.

Defenders: Complacent, unfocussed and error-prone

Captain Cesar Azpilicueta got caught still sleeping after that first half snoozefest and Tuchel’s half time rant, by an alert Richarlison on the high press from a routine pass by Thiago Silva to Azpilicueta across the back line. Richarlison and Demarai Gray latched onto the situation with a two on one high press causing the split second conundrum in Azpilicueta’s mind – enough to allow Richarlison to close off the passing lane, the eventual attempted clearance from Azpilicueta ricocheted off Richarlison’s shin back into Gray’s path, who now had an easy path to Edouard Mendy’s goal. Azpilicueta attempted to bring Gray down, but the Everton man was sharp enough to pass the ball back into Richarlison before going down inside the box himself. This left Richarlison open as he wasted no time in slotting past a stranded Mendy at the far post for the goal which made any penalty shouts unnecessary. Azpilicueta had no one but himself to blame as he screamed at the heavens.

Chelsea’s defense made some mistakes on the day and Everton’s did not. Azpilicueta’s individual error soon at the start of the second half gifted Everton the first and decisive goal. The Chelsea defense struggled somewhat collectively against Richarlison and Gray whenever Everton managed to threaten. Rudiger had earned a yellow by the 18th minute and Azpilicueta proceeded to get involved in brawling and earn his own yellow card by the 35th minute. Azpilicueta was eventually taken off by Tuchel in the second half and Reece James pushed back into right centerback while Hakim Ziyech took up right wingback duties. Richarlison was also able to cut the ball back through Antonio Rudiger’s legs and was unlucky as the centering pass actually reached Gray but ricocheted off his back as the latter stumbled/slid into its path. Overall a complacent performance by comparison to Everton’s defense on the day.

Midfielders: Midfield did it’s job, if only others did as well

Jorginho and Ruben Loftus-Cheek were handed starts in the double pivot. Neither was bad, and Loftus-Cheek actually made several good runs beating the press and driving upfield on multiple occasions, even getting some shots off, one forcing a sharp save from Pickford in the 79th minute. Tuchel replaced Jorginho at halftime with Mateo Kovacic who was arguably not able to impact the game much either. RLC still outshined Kovacic on the whole as well. Kovacic had a chance to equalize near the death when the ball fell to him in a scramble inside the Everton box, however, his shot lacked the strength to beat Pickford who was able to close off the gap and reach the bottom corner attempt. Chelsea having 78% of the ball perhaps was proof of the midfield doing its job, but nothing much beyond the statistics to talk about here.

Forwards: Lethargic and ineffective

Largely ineffective. As the ex-Evertonian Romelu Lukaku looked on somberly from underneath his hoodie deep on the Chelsea bench, Kai Havertz and Timo Werner had frustrating outings where they provided no creativity, nor receive much service up against the packed Everton defense in the first half. The slow, ponderous build up of Chelsea’s attacks did not help them, Everton’s defense was hardly ever out of position, nor tested through the middle. ‘Cross and Insha Allah‘ was the approach, but service into the box wasn’t effective either. Reece James hit the first man on multiple occasions both while crossing and shooting. The few headers the Chelsea forwards did get to, were weak efforts. It was just that kind of a performance, where everyone was going through the motions, not really being decisive, just doing enough but never really looking dangerous apart from the sequence that saw what should have been a goal thwarted at the line by a resolute Pickford.

Substitutes and Manager: Needlessly late substitutions again

The starting lineup’s efforts were not translating into any incisive bite into the final third. They lacked someone to link the possession through the middle of the pitch all match long, inevitably all attacks took the ball out wide to slow down attacking movements, allowing Everton to remain organized and behind the ball defensively. Tuchel introduced some needed urgency from the bench as the second half progressed. Tuchel took Azpilicueta off, moved Reece James from right wingback to right centerback and plugged in Hakim Ziyech at RW. Pulisic replaced Werner and Chelsea began to look more urgent, offering something different. However, the late charge was denied multiple times both at close range and distance by a heroic MOTM performance by Jordan Pickford on the day in the Everton goal. While the changes were effective, was it all then too little too late again from Tuchel?

Ratings:
Mendy: 6
Azpilicueta (C) : 4
Silva: 6.5
Rudiger: 5
James: 5
Alonso: 6
Jorginho: 5
Loftus-Cheek: 7
Mount: 5
Havertz: 5
Werner: 5
Kovacic: 6
Pulisic: 6
Ziyech: 6
Tuchel: 5

What do you think? Too generous? Too harsh? Let us know in the comments and on Twitter