Date: 8th February 2018 at 11:29am
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A Blue Up North reviews Watford’s big win over The Blues.

The final Premier League match of the weekend saw Chelsea make the relatively short trip to Hertfordshire to play a Watford side who had not won a league match since Boxing Day.

Antonio Conte was forced into making 3 changes to the side that were beaten by Bournemouth last time out. Andreas Christensen and Ross Barkley were both out injured, while Marcos Alonso was not picked on advice from the medical staff. That led to the return of David Luiz and Willian from their injuries, while Davide Zappacosta moved to the left flank to allow Victor Moses to be reintroduced on the right.

All this meant a 3-4-3 formation with no traditional striker leading the line. Chelsea’s new target man Olivier Giroud was deemed only ready to start on the bench. While an attack line of Pedro, Eden Hazard and Willian can be devastating when all 3 players are very fluid with very quick interplay between them, as they were in the 3-0 victory away at Huddersfield earlier in the season, they can end up being quite toothless otherwise.

Right from the start, it was clear the visitors were lacking the drive and ambition required to control the match. The home side were first to everything and won all the 50-50s, while The Blues play was riddled with poor decisions and errors. This was epitomised by Tiemoue Bakayoko. The Frenchman lost possession 7 times and was booked twice for clumsy tackles all inside the first 30 minutes.

Then a woeful first half for Chelsea was fully compounded by Troy Deeney’s 42nd minute penalty. It was a decision given by referee Mike Dean which the much maligned VAR probably would have reversed. Even the spot kick wasn’t a high quality finish but it certainly wrong footed Thibaut Courtois who barely made any effort to save it.

There was a slight improvement from the Chelsea side in the second half but they were still being outplayed by their hosts. But while Watford were unable to increase their lead, a combination of the own collective nervousness and the Chelsea side having an attacking focal point in the form of substitute Olivier Giroud saw The Blues actually apply some pressure on the home defence. Almost instantly, a forward run by David Luiz fed the ball to Eden Hazard, who was able to turn and fire in an undeserved equaliser.

At that moment it looked as though Conte’s team had finally remembered how to play and that they would continue pressing on to victory. However they immediately sat back as though the job was completed and an inspired last 10 minutes from The Hornets saw them slice through the away defence at will. 3 quick goals and the result was emphatic.

Yes, Watford played to the best of their ability and fully deserved the 3 points but it will be the lack of impetus shown by both the Chelsea players and their manager that will have most of the Chelsea faithful scratching their heads in bemusement.

Yes, Conte could have started with Giroud up front as a target man and even have given Cesc Fabregas a chance to display his defence penetrating passing skills to find the Frenchman. Conte could have substituted Bakayoko straight after he received his first booking in light of his disastrous display which seemed to empathise the Watford players. The manager could have brought Giroud on earlier to give him more time to harass the Watford back 3. However, he didn’t do any of these. He stood in his technical area with his arms folded and scowled at what was going on in front of him. Most of the media and pundits took his quiet demeanour as a resignation by the Italian that his time was up. But that didn’t happen. Not yet anyway.

It could very well have been a combination of confusion, of what he was witnessing, and resignation. But a resignation of the team’s fate within the match. Conte has, since last summer, regularly mentioned that he believes he does not have enough of the right players to battle all season in 4 competitions. His side have played twice a week, every week since the middle of November and as this spell of constant matches has continued, injuries and lacklustre performances are taking their toll. Conte’s animated theatrics on the touch line I’m sure inspires and drives the team to increase their focus on the pitch, but this will only add say 5 or 10%. That’s fairly irrelevant when the team is giving it all but are still a long way short of where they need to be.

Yes, the team were outplayed for 80 minutes by a side who hadn’t registered a league goal in their last 3 matches, but they were able to battle back to being on level terms after 82 minutes despite being down to 10 men for 52 minutes. And at that moment, the home side could well have dropped their heads.

But nothing can excuse Chelsea’s capitulation in the last 10 minutes. Tiredness was a factor but there was no depth of character nor a heart strong leader to inspire weary limbs back to the level of effort required to achieve what otherwise seems impossible. Surely the best thing to come out of this loss for The Blues would be the realisation that the team is severely lacking a John Terry. Oh for a constant production line of the club’s greatest captain.

Written by Jon Ellis. Follow him on Twitter @ClitheroeBlue.

 

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