A disappointing night at The King Power saw Chelsea slump to their fifth loss in their last six away games.
Frank Lampard named a surprisingly offensive midfield in his starting line-up, with Kai Havertz coming in to replace Jorginho. Callum Hudson-Odoi was also handed a well-deserved start after a string of excellent performances from the bench. It wasn’t long, however, before the boys from West London were carved wide open.
Woeful defending on several occasions meant that the Blues went in with a two-goal deficit at halftime having conceded an early goal from a set-piece courtesy of Wilfred Ndidi before James Maddison doubled the Foxes’ lead just before the break.
A marginally improved second half in which substitute Timo Werner netted from a Hakim Ziyech free-kick only for it to be chalked off due to a marginal offside decision before the game came to a close with the score remaining 2-0.
Here are five things we learned from the performance…
We can’t keep falling asleep!
A recent habit of losing all concentration at set-pieces and after changeovers of possession reared it’s ugly head yet again, with both fullbacks putting in sub-par performances and the whole team failing to cope with Leicester’s early short corner that lead to the opening goal. Having now conceded 50 goals away from home in the league since Lampard took charge (the second-worst record in the league in that period) the leaky backline on the road is a real cause for concern.
Cross or bust?
Over the last six weeks, Chelsea’s ‘Plan A’ going forward has been obvious: switch the play; find the space, and get the ball into the box from wide areas – but what happens when that doesn’t work? It seems as though the side have nothing to fall back on and recent results have proven that. Developing some form of a plan b for these exact situations is essential for any side looking to challenge at the highest level and it was partially down to the lack of a said plan that saw Frank’s men fall short on the night.
Slow, not steady
It was the same old story in possession for Chelsea with slow, lethargic passing in attacking phases allowing Leicester to hold their defensive shape and deal with the Blues’ threat with relative comfort. Many had dubbed Jorginho as the reason for our recent build-up play lacking pace and conviction however there was no real difference in the Italian’s absence. Perhaps it would be wise to take a leaf out of Leicester’s book, with their rapid changes in pace causing a lacklustre Chelsea defence all sorts of problems.
A clear lack of communication
Perhaps most worrying of all was the apparent lack of communication between a group of players that you would have expected to have formed at least the beginnings of a relationship by now. On multiple occasions, an obviously non-existent connection between the players saw the Blues gift possession to their opposition and concede sloppy set pieces, as well as seeing their own attacks fizzle out without coming close to troubling an admittedly resolute and well-drilled Leicester defence. This could be the underlying issue to the majority of Chelsea’s problems and needs to be resolved quickly if aspirations to play European football next season are to be realised.
A diamond in the rough?
It’s difficult to draw any positive conclusions from the performance. German youngster Kai Havertz showed glimpses of his generational potential with some neat touches and composure on the ball in tight areas while his international counterpart Timo Werner showed signs of improvement off the bench, having a cool finish disallowed towards the end of the game due to a marginal offside position. There were short glimpses of the talent this team has tonight, but those glimpses have to become all the more regular if Chelsea are to break out of this poor run of form.
Overall, it was a depressingly underwhelming performance from the boys in blue who now sit eighth in the table with all but one of the teams above them still having games in hand. A blip against Arsenal that turned into poor form against Everton and Wolves is starting to look like something worse still, and with reports suggesting Lampard’s job could be under threat, something has to change – and fast.
