Chelsea had a real night to forget against Arsenal last night in a lacklustre showing.
Frank Lampard has piled the blame on the players, but the Blues boss needs to start holding his own hands up and taking a look at things from a coaching side.
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There is no doubt the players were playing without any real desire and intensity and have been collectively poor over the last four matches really, but Lampard is the manager of the team and it is up to him to get the best out of his players, and some of his selections and substitutions have been questionable to say the least.
But that is for another article (later this week!). Here is my players ratings from last night.
Edouard Mendy – 5
Left exposed by those ahead of him on far too many occasions and he actually kept Chelsea from being embarrassed further, but he conceded three and looked shaky on occasions.
Reece James – 4
The reality is that he is playing with an injury, and his performance showed that. Silly challenge for the penalty even though it was far too soft to be a foul.
Kurt Zouma – 5
Did the basics fine but he wasn’t as assured as usual.
Thiago Silva – 6
Few silly unforced errors early on but he soon recomposed himself and had a fair match.
Ben Chilwell – 4
Same as James, should not have started the game because he was playing with pain and it was visible to see. No surging up and down the left flank like he usually does. One of Lampard’s many odd decisions.
N’Golo Kante – 5
He looked very out of sorts and it was a rare poor performance from him, not completing a few very simple passes and just not as urgent as usual.
Mason Mount – 6
One of the few players who can actually say they put in the effort, but even he wasn’t quite at it last night.
Mateo Kovacic – 6
He was certainly not playing badly, but was oddly removed for Jorginho at half time in another weird decision from Lampard.
Timo Werner – 3
Awful performance from the German once again, but he is playing out of position and you really need to see him playing centrally now. He was removed at half time because he was playing badly, which he was. But you can’t help but feel we are wasting him right now making him stick out wide and going far too deep defending.
Christian Pulisic – 7
A rare shining light amongst the darkness, Pulisic can hold his head high being one of the few players putting in 100% effort and looking to make things happened for Chelsea.
Tammy Abraham – 6
At the very least Abraham was trying hard and looked like he cared, he also scored the goal and was the driving force behind Chelsea’s attempted come back, which was too little too late.
SUBS
★ Callum Hudson Odoi – 9
Hudson-Odoi showed every Chelsea player how they SHOULD be playing last night, came on full of energy and intent and he put in a fantastic performance. Should have started the match and he will against Aston Villa tomorrow.
Jorginho – 5
Missed another penalty but at least he showed a little bit of desire when he came on.
I know Werner is playing out of position, but where did he get the 3 points from ?
‘Kovacic certainly wasn’t playing badly’ I can’t believe I just read that sentence. He was absolutely shocking. No energy, no fight, moved the ball backwards every time he got it, lost every single 50-50. For me that was arguably his worst performance in a chelsea shirt. Woeful performance and deserved… Read more »