Well, I was completely wrong about Chelsea. Chelsea really are a laughingstock of a club at the moment as they’ve lost ANOTHER GAME already this season with their 1-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest.
So, Chelsea are going to become the next Spurs, is that it?
Despite spending well over $1B on new players the last 12 months under Todd Boehly’s torrid reign, Chelsea are starting off another season in the worst possible fashion as they’ve just lost their second game of the year ALREADY with their 1-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest. And, to be honest, they really deserved to lose.
When you see most 1-0 defeats on the resumes of the traditional Top-6 contenders against smaller, relegation-threatened sides, it’s usually down to the age-old classic smash-and-grab. You know, the smaller club walking into the traditional Top-6’s own backyard, setting all eleven men behind the ball and defending for their lives, and when the traditional Top-6 side makes a single mistake, the smaller side capitalizes to win the game 1-0.
It’s happened countless of times in the past and will happen countless times in the future…but it didn’t happen today.
Sure, Chelsea dominated the ball and possession from the first minute to the last with them racking up 76% possession, 21 shots, almost 700 passes (696 passes to be more accurate), 88% passing accuracy, and 7 corners as Chelsea’s midfield of Enzo Fernandez, Moises Caicedo, and Conor Gallagher controlled the tempo the match and accounted for the vast majority of the chances created.
And when you see how Forest only had 7 shots of their own, 228 passes, 0 corners, and a passing accuracy worse than Mr. Magoo’s driving skills (66%), it’s easy to think that this game was a complete and total injustice for Chelsea. But, as I said, that’s just not how the game went down as even though Chelsea had a huge portion of the ball, they couldn’t create a REAL goalscoring chance if their lives depended on it.
Whether it was Forest back line of Wily Boly, Joe Worrall, Scott McKenna, Serge Aurier, and Ola Aina making huge blocks (such as the one on Raheem Sterling’s chance in the 1st minute and Nicolas Jackson’s huge goal-line block in the 55th minute), Matt Turner making the odd save or two (I’ll get back to that in a minute), or Chelsea’s forwards having some of the WORST MISSES EVER (like Nicolas Jackson’s literal OPEN-GOAL MISS in the 82nd minute), Chelsea just couldn’t score.
If literally any other team in the Premier League had the chances Chelsea had today, they would have beaten Forest by 3-4 goals. It’s insane how Chelsea, a side that has spent the better part of the last 20 years on top of English and European football and has spent over $1B on new transfers these last 12 months, can’t find a single offensive player who can put the ball in the back of the net. Or even take a shot on net for that matter.
With only 26% possession, Forest had MORE SHOTS ON TARGET (3) than Chelsea (2) who had over 3X as many total shots and over 50% more possession.
Again, it’s crazy how a team with Raheem Sterling (€55.4M), Noni Madueke (€35 million), Mykhailo Mudryk (€100M), Deivid Washington (€20.1M), Nicolas Jackson (€37M), and Cole Palmer (€46.6M) in attack can’t generate more than 2 shots on target against a Forest side that not only fought off relegation last season, but has also had a wild, chaotic summer transfer window of their own.
You’d think with Mauricio Pochettino as the new coach, an entire summer of training and development of the youth and inexperienced players, and not being burden with the weight of European football and the expectations that come along with it, Chelsea could figure out a system that can at least generate a half dozen shots on net/game and maybe even average more than a goal/game as well.
But, after playing four games in the Premier League and losing two of them (3-1 to West Ham and a 1-0 loss to Nottingham Forest today), Chelsea are averaging…1.25 goals/game. Hooray, they are actually averaging a full .25 more than a goal/game! It’s time to open the champagne bottles and celebrate Chelsea’s obvious path to the title!
Okay, being serious, I really thought Chelsea had turned a corner after putting in a great performance against Liverpool in the opening weekend of the season, but it looks like they are even more of a disappointment than we all thought as they’re back to their old habits again.
As for Forest, there’s not much really to say besides they put in an impressive defensive performance (though, they really didn’t have to do too much as the Chelsea attack was quite incompetent), and Anthony Elanga had a great side-foot strike at the start of the second half to beat Robert Sanchez and give Forest the much-needed 3 points.
I don’t know if they have the fire power to stay up this season even with the likes of Everton, Sheffield United, Burnley, and Luton all looking like relegation fodder already, but we’ll have to wait and see.
What we don’t have to wait and see is that Todd Boehly’s Chelsea never fails to disappoint and always fails to impress.
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