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All streaks must end eventually, and the longer they last, the more frustrating it becomes when they come to an end. And sure enough, on Saturday, Chelsea’s 17-game unbeaten streak came to a very frustrating end.
Chelsea losing at Everton isn’t exactly a novelty. Now we’ve done it three seasons in a row, and haven’t even managed to score in three of our last four visits to Goodison. But this Chelsea loss at the moment against this Everton is still very frustrating. Everton were in a classic Ancelotti “bad moment”. Chelsea was apparently fixing things. Confidence was high and growing.
And then this.
Neither Chelsea nor Everton were particularly good at this one, but Everton got the only moment in their favor that mattered and Chelsea hit the post twice. We might regret that bad luck, but the harsh reality is that we didn’t do enough to generate luck, much less adequate opportunities.
You could say we were unlucky if you want to be generous or kind. Head coach Frank Lampard had no such intentions in his post-match comments.
“I think we could have gotten something out of the game, but I wouldn’t say we were unlucky because it’s football and I don’t think we splashed his goal with great opportunities. We had opportunities that you mentioned [James and Mount hitting the post] That might get you at least one point, but we weren’t at our best tonight. “
“I didn’t think we necessarily deserved to lose the game in terms of a couple of chances. Although, if we are honest with ourselves, recently it was not us. “
Chelsea severely lacked a leading edge in the final third, missed too many passes in midfield and made a couple of massive errors to the back, one of which was called from the penalty spot. These are the kinds of problems that we thought we had solved, or at least were in the process of solving, but these 90 minutes were a real step back in that regard. Sure, we had several key injuries to deal with, but on paper there is more than enough quality to ensure that such performances don’t happen.
Of course, there is no use wallowing in pity. It’s time to learn from this loss and get back on that horse. We play the struggling Wolves again on Tuesday, then take a week off before diving into the madness of the holiday schedule.
“We are a work in progress and a night like this could happen. I don’t like them, but that’s the challenge for us: make sure we bounce back strong and let’s see Tuesday. “
-Frank Lampard; source: Football.London
Forward and upward.
