On Sunday afternoon, Chelsea faced Manchester United just after title rivals Man City beat West Ham and closed the gap to be on the same points as the Blues.
This felt like it put more pressure on the side to pick up all three points, but they failed to do so in a frustrating night under the lights.
The match finished 1-1 with Chelsea walking away frustrated yet again. After being held to a 1-1 draw to Burnley, that’s back to back home Premier League draws for Chelsea.
A win would have seen Chelsea go 15 points ahead of Manchester United; a draw keeps the gap at 12, but the draw means we are now just one point ahead of Man City and two ahead of Liverpool after thirteen matches.
Building up to the game, I always felt United would do what they always seem to be getting joy out of us over recent years, which is to soak up pressure and hit us on the counter-attack. Right on cue, Chelsea’s lack of killer instinct got caught out with a costly mistake as Jadon Sancho pounced on a Jorginho poor touch leave himself one on one with Mendy and slot the ball in for the lead.
As I started to look at the clock, getting frustrated with the lack of changes, Aaron Wan-Bissaka made a clumsy challenge in the box on Thiago Silva and eased my mind a little. Jorginho stepped up after making the error for the opening goal and made up for it by slotting home the penalty to make it 1-1.
It took until the 78th minute for changes to be made as Marcos Alonso and Callum Hudson-Odoi were brought off for the energetic Mason Mount and Christian Pulisic. Moments later, he then brought on Romelu Lukaku for Timo Werner, who should have come off with a goal to his name.
To me, this game had been screaming for a change from halftime as the attacking side of the team just lacked the composure to finish the chances we created. The more the game went on, and this didn’t happen, I kept thinking, “Come on Tuchel, freshen it up and get some legs on to make the difference.”
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Chelsea was well on top in the first half but lacked that killer instinct in front of the goal. In my opinion, the front three wasn’t working. Too often, the players got in the same type of space, and no one seemed to be willing to lead the line.
Going into the match, I felt set pieces could have been a big chance to win in the game. Although both goals came around set-piece errors, I don’t think the side took advantage of our corners. Finishing the match with 15 corners and Man United missing their best header of the ball in Harry Maguire, we failed to make it count.
It ended up being a frustrating day at the office, but no time to moan as the matches come at a fast rate with us having a trip to Watford on Wednesday then at home in the early kick-off on Saturday against London rivals West Ham.
Dropping four points in our last two home games, when the better side, shows how much we need our number nine back in the side. Costly misses and not taking advantage of being on top has caught up with the side and have no room for mistakes as chasing pack close in.
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