I needed a solid 24-36 hours of absolute Chelsea-detox after that horrendous defeat on Saturday. The history of the fixture is one thing — only the second win for Spurs at the Bridge since 1990 — but combined with the performance, the approach, and the attitude shown throughout … and, yeah, we needed to be on a break for a minute.
There were many mistakes made this weekend. Some were obvious. Some were less so. And I’d argue it was the less obvious ones that truly doomed us. Unfortunately, no one bothered to ask manager Xabi Alonso about those.
Mike Penders sliced a one-fisted punch straight into the back of his own net — I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before; and probably will never see something like that again! — and that broke the team. Cole Palmer’s red card, questionable or not, just made sure of it.
“I had the feeling that it was going to be about the first goal, the second half it was being tight, some half chances from them, some half chances from us, it was going to be about the key moment and once we have conceded the first goal it has changed everything. Straight away almost when we wanted to have a reaction, the red card and it went the other way and probably we can do better, so it is one to reflect in this big game that it was and it is a good opponent, the performance is one to improve.”
-Xabi Alonso; source: Football.London
But the team broke because of the decisions that were made, and then not made, prior to any of those events happening. It broke because of the setup, because of the approach (individual and collective), and because of the reactions (individual and collective). This is a team that’s still quite susceptible to breaking (mentally) despite the addition of some veteran leadership over the summer, and it was tasked with executing a gameplan that emphasized the impact of any such potential breaking.
João Pedro’s injury in training obviously caused a last-minute rethink, but whatever it was that Alonso came up with was not the correct answer. More damningly, his unwillingness (or inability) to change things during the game was quite alarming. All game we had Morgan Rogers trying to hold up long balls from the back. All game we had 2-v-3 in the center of the pitch and were constantly exposed. The defense was a mess, trying to cover the extra man in midfield. Marco Palestra was used in a defensive role and on the wrong flank; Geovany Quenda bombed on his full debut, which somehow lasted 72 minutes. If the plan is to not be on the front-foot, then the plan has to be more reactive.
And we’ll have to show that very quickly. Liverpool in the League Cup midweek is a bit of a bonus game, win or lose, but an absolutely horrendous Manchester United at home next weekend is now even more of a must-win game.