When I woke up yesterday, I had a pretty sore head. In fairness, and rather surprisingly, this wasn’t at the thought of Chelsea playing. An innocent enough trip to the pub on Friday had got wildly out of hand thanks to some rather inclement weather.
A man of extreme habit, and wanting to try and undo some of the damage I’d subjected my body to the night before, I got a solid gym session in and rewarded myself with a stay in the sauna. I was at last starting to feel human again.
Then, the moment I had been dreading all week, or at least since Wednesday night. My return to Stamford Bridge.
Having once again made the decision to walk to the ground, it was a lovely spring day in London. I arrived at the pub shortly after two. I think it’s fair to say that there wasn’t a particularly confident atmosphere floating around.
Concerningly, there wasn’t a single soul in our matchday group that thought the result would go any way other than Brighton’s. I don’t have the heart to go hunting for the stats, but I know for a fact that before yesterday they’d never done the double over us. Not least due to the fact that they’ve never won a league game at the Bridge. However, luckily for them, this current Chelsea team is one that specializes in breaking unthinkable records, and yesterday was time for another one of those.
I may sound bitter, but I honestly do not care about these remaining league games. The focus has to be on Tuesday night. While it’s going to be very difficult to overturn a two-goal deficit against Madrid, it is certainly possible.
The lineup was clearly made with one eye toward Tuesday, most likely two. I was most excited to see the inclusion of Mykhailo Mudryk. Avid readers of the blog will note he was a player I picked out in the Madrid away blog as someone who deserved a fair crack in the return leg. He is our answer to Vinicius Junior, not in terms of absolute quality, but he certainly has an X-factor which has been sorely missed in recent months.
He may have only been reappointed last week, but it already feels like Frank Lampard has been in the Chelsea dugout for an age. It didn’t seem possible to me that yesterday was his first home game back. The WeAreTheShed fan group had done a wonderful job of showing just how special this occasion was with a variety of different banners and flags of one of Stamford Bridge’s greatest.
Having not been able to previously stomach lunch, I opted for a Chicken Balti pie as the pre-match preparations were underway. I was incredibly disappointed with it, unfortunately, and it’s absolutely the worst one I’ve had at the ground. To say it was overcooked would be an understatement, and Tuesday night’s will have a lot of work to do if I’m not going to make the switch over to the alternate Rollover hot dog.
I do not know who has signed it off, but the previous pre-match tune of “Parklife” has been replaced by a ridiculous heavy metal song. I cannot put into words just how terrible this is.
Yesterday, the entire ground had been on their feet chanting Frank Lampard’s name only to be completely drowned out by this horrible song. It immediately killed the atmosphere and was actually met with boos upon finishing. I do not know who is responsible for this, but it has got to stop because it is incredibly out of touch.
It’s actually quite incredible just how badly we got outplayed by De Zerbi’s Brighton side. He has done a truly wonderful job in building upon the foundations which Graham Potter oh so kindly left him and it was incredibly obviously exactly what game plan they were executing yesterday. The speed they moved the ball at is something that has not been seen at Stamford Bridge for far too long.
I was delighted to see Mykhailo Mudryk rewarding both mine and Lampard’s faith in him by putting in a real shift from the left wing. He was a breath of fresh air and was never afraid to take on his man whenever the opportunity arose. He fired a few shots at goal to top it all off which was met incredibly receptively by a crowd who has been starved of goals in recent months. His assist for Conor’s deflected goal was simply brilliant.
Personally, I think a lot of the question marks which were directed at Kepa midweek were a tad harsh. Yesterday he was exceptional between the posts and without him it honestly could’ve been four or five. We still need to go to the market for a new keeper come Summer, but I’d be more than happy to keep Kepa in and around the club and he was deservedly captain yesterday. Whilst you can certainly question his ability in places, I am a big fan of his attitude.
Whilst I have questioned Conor Gallagher’s ability a few times, he was one of our best players yesterday and was rewarded for it with one of the luckiest goals I’ve seen us score all season. The half-time highlights down in the concourse showed this a good 20 times for some bizarre reason, each time it seemed to go in a little bit more slower.
I’m still slightly surprised I saw us score yesterday given just how poor we’ve been in front of goal near enough all season. The crowd was sarcastically jubilant after this but the mood was soon crushed by Danny Welbeck’s brilliant header before half time. I find it hard to believe anyone in Stamford Bridge was too surprised by this.
I’m a huge fan of Kaoru Mitoma, but watching him in person really was something else. He was sensational and I felt bad for Trevoh Chalobah who was tasked with trying to stop him. It’s honestly one of the best performances I’ve seen from an opposition player at the Bridge all season and he really is that good.
Their second goal was just unbelievably good. That really is the best goal I’ve seen at Stamford Bridge all season and it was inch-perfect as it flew into the top corner. Completely unstoppable.
Full-time marked the return of what is near enough a tradition as boos circled around the ground. I may have joined in a bit. I do not know how some of these players can be happy with the horrendous performances they put in on a very regular basis.
The Brighton players heading over as a group to the away end at full time really did summarise the gulf in these two clubs at the moment. With Brighton there’s a clear identity and goal that they’re working towards as a collective. With Chelsea, there’s quite simply nothing and it stings. I’ve seen photos of angry fans confronting Todd Boehly at full time and whilst this is obviously wrong, something has to be changed in this club if we’re to find success next season. I fully believe this ownership will get us back on track, I can only really fault them for the sacking of Tuchel but there’s no point dwelling on that now.
All in all, a bad result that was made better thanks to some good company pre, post and during the game. There’s potentially just eight games left this season now and I’m looking forward to a summer of no Chelsea in all honesty.
The Shed Diaries 