05.01.23 Manchester City (h)

Usually, one of the main positives of playing Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City team is that you then don’t have to worry about playing them for another six months or so. Unfortunately, that rule doesn’t apply to us. We played them at the start of November, and we can look forward to playing them once again this Sunday. Three games against arguably the best team in the world inside just two months.

Only, for the last couple of games against them, we haven’t looked completely out of place.

I must confess, my gut feeling heading into Thursday night’s game was one of pure dread. In fact, it was the least confident I’ve been for a home game for as long as I can remember. With us languishing down in 10th place, and City near the top in 2nd, it seemed there was only one outcome for such an occasion.

As I pointed out in my piece covering the Bournemouth game, our home form hasn’t just been average. It’s been horrendous. This isn’t a new thing either, I’d go as far as to say this has been an issue for as long as four or five years. The reality is, unless we go three goals clear of an opposition team, you’re always going to have a sinking feeling that the minute an opposition team scores, the game is going to get flipped on it’s head. It doesn’t matter whether we’re playing Manchester United, Wolves or Brentford. The minute an opposition team scores they might as well call the game a draw.

The Sky Sports feed in the pub beforehand reflected much of what I’ve said above. Graph after Graph and Stat after Stat appeared in their analysis showing the enormity of the gulf between the two teams. Whilst I think the majority of the home fans are behind Graham Potter, I wasn’t entirely surprised to hear a few jabs at him from those around. With one person, clearly a few beers in, suggesting he “go back where he came from.” Strange.

So it was Thursday night’s game that proved to be a refreshing change of attitude from our players, despite being eventually beaten. I realise how silly that sounds, and it’s a far cry from the standards we’ve had in recent years but we do have to take every positive we can get at the moment.

I love the idea of a Thursday night Premier League game, close enough to the weekend that you don’t have to feel guilty for having a couple of drinks before and after, but still under the lights so you get a huge buzz in the crowd. This buzz transmitted into a well observed minute’s applause for the King of Football, Pele.

Funnily enough, I have a feeling there are going to be quite a few games on a Thursday night at Stamford Bridge next season.

The first few minutes of the game might as well have been a metaphor for life at Chelsea Football Club right now. With the echo of the liquidator still ringing around the ground, it was Raheem Sterling who proved to be the latest victim of what can only be described as the worst injury crisis I’ve seen at Chelsea Football Club in recent memory. Raheem was able to walk round the pitch unaided by our physio’s but the look on his face said it all. I don’t think we will see Raheem for a little while…

Despite, this we looked to have a good hold on the game early doors and only an inch-perfect block from John Stones was able to deny Christian Pulisic who looked destined to score. I only wish the desire from John Stones put into that tackle could’ve been matched by Pulisic’s body in stopping him from getting injured. It looked like it was just a sore impact injury at first. Christian looked somewhat comfortable as he bounced from side to side in front of the West Stand until an all too familiar look appeared on his face.

If I were to grade the looks of disappointment on both Raheem and Christian’s faces as they limped past me I’d definitely give Christian the higher one. He looked gutted and I can only hope this isn’t a re-aggravation of a previous issue. It’s such a shame, every time he looks like he’s turned a corner here he’ll miss the next few months and unfortunately I fear this situation will be no different.

No way to sugar coat it, these injuries really do just suck. We now have 10 key first-team players injured and I dare suggest the injured team would beat the uninjured one at this point in time. Even worse, the early injury of Raheem Sterling meant that Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was unleashed onto the field after just five minutes of play.

He then came off after 68 minutes, I don’t really want to talk about him but make of that what you will.

That being said, the general mood in the crowd was positive. On what felt like a rare occasion, our players were actually going toe-to-toe with some of the best in the world. Chasing down every ball and winning 50/50s. The effect this has on our crowd cannot be overstated, it gives them something to cheer for.

The two stand-out players from the game were without a doubt Denis Zakaria and Carney Chukwuemeka.

I was quite frustrated about the lack of playtime Zakaria got earlier in the season. To me it just seemed like a no-loss situation given our form and injury woes in midfield but I’m delighted to see him take his chance. He has to be a nailed-on starter for the foreseeable and him and Mateo Kovacic were a joy to watch in midfield as they completely neutralised Kevin De Bruyne.

Carney Chukwuemeka is another player I’ve been eager to see more of given the reputation he brought with him from Aston Villa and I’ve heard good things about his performances with our development squad. He looked right at home when he was thrown into the game in the 22nd minute. What I found so impressive about him was his technical ability given his physical build and his effortless nature on the ball did genuinely remind me of Jude Bellingham.

With just a few centimetres and 10 numbers between them on the back of their shirts, I really really hope we see more of these two together over the coming weeks and months. With a rumoured buy-out clause of £27 million in his contract, Zakaria could turn out to be an absolute steal and a very quick-win to fix our midfield woes.

Thiago Silva is not 38 years old, that is all. Another massive performance from a legendary player. The best striker in the world did not have a sniff of our goal.

Much has been said about Marc Cucurella in the aftermath of this game. Unfortunately, this wasn’t even his worst performance for us but I don’t think he was totally useless. What will be held against him is an element of indecisiveness when challenging for the ball. He looks a shadow of the player we saw in the first couple of games. Mentally I can only imagine what he’s going through right now as everything that could’ve gone wrong has gone wrong. Let’s hope he can turn it round.

Lewis Hall came on for him with just over 20 minutes to go and was outstanding once again. Watching him play, you can’t help but feel one of Thomas Tuchel or Todd Boehly suffered a serious lapse of judgement when deciding to give Brighton ~£63 million for Cucurella as he looks like he will be a level above for years to come.

Ultimately, the Manchester City goal told us what we all knew about Kepa. It wasn’t his height that cost him, it was a whole new mistake. As I saw the ball flash across the goal I felt even I could’ve got a touch on it from my position one row back in the Shed Lower. A terrible mistake which once again confirms what we all knew. We need to be in the market for an elite goalie come the summer transfer window.

Overall, a good performance. The vultures in the media that had been circling around Graham Potter have departed to the North West for Frank Lampard and there was confidence in the air as everyone departed Stamford Bridge into Thursday night.

Up next, Manchester City. Who knows, after that performance we might even have something to cheer about but I’ll be back to cover our away game at Craven Cottage next Thursday.

Where, dare I say it, a win would take us level on points with them.

If you have read this far, I’d just like to take a moment to pay my respects to Gianluca Vialli. A Chelsea Legend both on and off the pitch. Grazie Gianluca. May you rest in peace.