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It feels like we’ve been here before and everything good in Chelsea’s offensive lineup is being undone by mistakes at the rear.
The costly array of attacking talents Chelsea amassed in the summer transfer window should have been the focus of headlines after this game against Southampton.
Timo Werner scored his first two Premier League goals for the club, and Kai Havertz the first, but long-evident back weaknesses in Frank Lampard’s side prevented that from happening.
The Chelsea manager is again rightly faced with questions about his team’s defense capabilities. The Blues first gave up a two-goal lead and were ultimately tied by a well-deserved draw from Jannik Vestergaard in injury time.
Nothing on this Chelsea bottom line is working as it should.
Together with German international duo Werner and Havertz, Christian Pulisic started his first game of the season after a hamstring injury while Hakim Ziyech was called up from the bench for his debut. But it was Ralph Hasenhuttl’s men who were chasing the fourth goal when the final whistle came.
Any sense of composure in the Chelsea ranks was long gone due to the pressure of the Saints’ aggressive pressure play.
Southampton’s first two goals came from turnovers in the Chelsea half following mistakes by Havertz and Kurt Zouma, who gave Danny Ings and Che Adams clear chances.
The last-gasp draw came in one piece from set pieces as Vestergaard headed home and outplayed Kepa Arrizabalaga, surely now an emergency option until new signing Edouard Mendy returns from an injury sustained in international service.
Blaming Kepa would be to oversimplify the problem. In this game, a mid-table team seemed capable of scoring at will against a team that spent £ 220 million ($ 275 million) this summer. In the market, at least, Chelsea is showing the ambition of future champions. But that’s not currently catching up on the field.
As good as the forwards were on the ball, the press dodged them too easily, a failure that gave Southampton midfield all the time they needed to pick the right balls for their attackers.
Jorginho and N’Golo Kante were lost at sea trying to cover defensive lapses of the four forwards, who lost their way in the second half. The 4-2-3-1 formation is limiting; It has only two midfielders trying to stop counterattacks and Lampard sought to nullify the problems caused by the adventurous form by adding Reece James to his midfield later.
Apart from Thiago Silva, Chelsea had their four strongest defenders, but they looked uncomfortable dealing with pressure from the Southampton forwards. They are playing with a formation that brings out the best in their players in attack but not in defense.
“I don’t think he’s conceding goals because of the form of the team,” Lampard said later at Stamford Bridge. “Of course, we have changed the way and I have to make those decisions with the staff that we have and get the best of them.
“That’s something I have to think about, but it doesn’t mean I’m determined to stick with that line-up and there may be changes and adjustments as we go along. It’s something we need to keep working on. A change.
“Change needs to work in training camp, we haven’t had much of that, so sometimes the work in progress is in games and today there were a lot of good things from 4-2-3-1, particularly in the first half. .
“In the second half I would not blame the form of the team, more than we did not deal with the fact that Southampton were really willing to put pressure on us in their own half.
“We wanted to miss their press, we didn’t do enough and that meant we turned the ball over in our own half, which regardless of form is always a problem.”
But as the quality of the team grows, the excuses for defensive failures become more difficult to accept. Chelsea conceded 54 league goals last season and Lampard’s second year in charge could follow the same trend.
This season, Lampard has conceded an average of 1.5 goals per game in the Premier League, the worst figures for a Chelsea manager who has overseen more than one match in the competition.
This was a complete defensive failure once again. This expensive and undoubtedly talented group needs its deficiencies addressed, both structural and mental.
For Lampard, proving that he is a defensively capable coach is a step he must take. With matches against Sevilla at home in the Champions League, followed by Manchester United away in the League, there are tough tests to come.
The chemistry at the rear has to come after this, their second 3-3 draw of the season. These games are entertaining but they won’t win you titles.
