I was at this game live watching from The Bridge, and believe me, it was a disgusting watch.
Yes, we were all over them and in full control in the first half and we looked VERY good in moments. But a football match is not 45 minutes long, it is actually 90 minutes long. And someone will do well to remind our players and our head coach this very fact. Because why on earth can we only ever seem to turn up for one half of football or a small period of a game? It’s puzzling, and awful.
A section of Chelsea fans booed them off at full time and really, they deserved it. You cannot be THAT in control of a game all half to then go and lose it. Aston Villa were truly awful in that first 45. They could not play out and every time they tried to they gave the ball back to Chelsea. Credit goes to our players there too because we were working so hard to win the ball back, win the first balls and the second balls. That is how you win football matches, but you have to do it across the whole game.
I was watching from the side that Pedro Neto was playing in the first half and whether you rate him or not, he was the key to our attacks and getting more goals in that first half. But the issue was, we did not get the ball to him enough. I watched him all through that half off the ball and he was furious; constantly throwing his hands in the air and shouting at his team mates. He was in acres of space all half because Ian Maatsen was going narrow following Cole Palmer, and Neto was left with so much space and all it needed was a half decent long pass in behind and he was in for a shot or a cross. Even if Maatsen did get to him, Neto had the beating of him every time. Why didn’t the coaches and players see this, if I did? Absolutely baffling. We needed to get that vital second goal to help stop the inevitable switch up that Unai Emery was going to make at the break because he just watched an awful 45 minutes from his players. I said to the boys at half time that if we didn’t find that second goal then we could lose the game. I knew Villa would come out and play much better, I knew they would make changes. But we didn’t react on or off the pitch, and then the predictable happened and Chelsea went and lost the game. Before they scored the equaliser it was Chelsea who had the momentum swing, but we didn’t use it.
This was an ideal time to win a true 6-pointer but as this young Chelsea side often do, they folded over. It’s becoming all too familiar under this Chelsea.
We can place blame on the owners, sporting directors, players, and the head coach, as they all had/have a hand in how terribly inconsistent we are and I’ll be frank, it’s FAR from good enough and something needs to change and accountability needs to be had at the very top.
