It was (briefly) a bit better from Manchester United at Stamford Bridge on Saturday – but ultimately, it’s another defeat for the Red Devils to swallow.
Michael Carrick’s side are now down to 17th in the league table.
As for Chelsea, a welcome return to winning ways, even if this display was not 100% convincing.
Here are our Scout Notes from west London.
SOME SIGNS OF LIFE FROM UNITED – BEFORE SECOND-HALF CAPITULATION
There were signs of some fight from Manchester United in the first half.
Bruno Fernandes (£11.7m), back in the starting XI after last weekend’s demotion, skied a massive chance set up by Bryan Mbeumo (£7.9m). Amad Diallo (£5.7m) twice missed when racing through on goal; one effort saved, one off-target. Better balls from Fernandes and Mbeumo, respectively, could have resulted in tap-ins for Mbeumo and Matheus Cunha (£7.8m). The Brazilian also had a header disallowed for offside.
There were, indeed, some boos from home support at half-time, with United well ahead on xG.
Alas, more shooting of the feet after the break. Morgan Rogers (£8.1m) was inexplicably left to waltz through the United defence just after half-time, and the resistance ended. Even more after Lisandro Martinez (£4.8m) received his marching orders for a ridiculous second booking, earned after an arm in the face of Wesley Fofana (£5.0m). That won Chelsea and Cole Palmer (£9.8m) a penalty, and that was that.
The final 25 minutes were just about how many Chelsea wanted. But for the Blues’ wastefulness, it should have been more than 2-0.
“I think it was as good as we played for some time. In the first half, we looked dangerous, we looked fluid, we looked like a good team and as I said, looked really dangerous. Could, should have scored one or two maybe three [goals] even, with the chances in the spaces that we created. And then, the game gets away from us.” – Michael Carrick
NOT TOTALLY CONVINCING FROM CHELSEA
Chelsea should have gone into the break behind. They did have their own first-half chances, but more of the scrappy/penalty box pinball variety than the clear-cut ones carved out by United.
The Blues ended up earning their second clean sheet in three matches, but more by luck than judgement. Fofana was dreadful again, and the fact that he ended up on 11 points (courtesy of the shut-out, an assist and two bonus) was a bit of a travesty.
Going forward, it wasn’t exactly convincing – as it hasn’t been in Joao Pedro‘s (£7.7m) absence(s). Their first goal was hand-delivered to them by a parting Reds sea, while the shot count and xG tally only swelled after Martinez’s dismissal.
“Yeah, I think that there were different moments in the game. The first half was intense, there were momentums for both sides. United had their chances, we were close as well, so at half-time, we have spoken, and the reaction from the second half was better. We started quite well, we got the lead, we looked in better control and after, with the 2-0 and the red card, the context of the game changed. But you know, it has not been easy.” – Xabi Alonso
Palmer did a lot of dropping deep, so much so that very nearly earned DefCon points alongside the excellent Romeo Lavia (£5.0m):
Palmer had registered just one shot (from halfway!) and created one chance before Martinez went off; he finished on four and three of those, respectively. Indeed, he could have walked away with a massive haul, only being denied an assist by a very tight offside call and then skying a great chance late on.
Rogers’ goal was his only effort of the match.
So, then, not massively convincing from an attacking perspective, but a tad better than it had been in Gameweek 8.
A Sunderland defence in total disarray is up next, too.
NETO ‘OOP’, ESTEVAO STARTS
Alonso made some tactical tweaks for this one, again going without Danny Welbeck (£5.8m) in a Pedro-less league game.
Instead, Pedro Neto (£6.6m) started up top, with Estevao (£6.3m) coming in from the cold out wide.
“Today has worked really well. We need to be sometimes creative, sometimes try to find solutions with the players available and even Pedro [Neto], he has worked really hard in that position, it’s not new for him. Linking up with the players around, there were moments but I would say that especially the start of the second half, what we have spoken at half-time, the reaction was quite good.” – Xabi Alonso
Estevao ended up having more shots (six) than any other player in Gameweek 9 so far,
“We spoke after Tottenham and he knew that he was going to be playing tonight, today. He has had the best response to show that he deserves more, that he was prepared and that’s what you want from a football player, so I’m very happy for him. He deserved to enjoy his game, he had a good connection with the crowd. He was really close to scoring that goal. At the end he fought really hard, he was tired and it has been a good day for him.” – Xabi Alonso on Estevao
- READ MORE: FPL Gameweek 9: Saturday’s goals, assists, bonus + DefCon points
- READ MORE: FPL notes: Gross on cusp of ban + Maresca on benching Cherki
- READ MORE: FPL notes: Rose on Kroupi’s fitness + Evanilson, Okafor injury
- READ MORE: FPL notes: McGinn pen miss, Jackson nets again + Cash ban
- READ MORE: FPL notes: Arsenal clean sheet, Rice’s assists + Szoboszlai returns
- READ MORE: FPL notes: Early Sangare sub explained + angry Glasner vows to “change things”
