Chelsea continued their poor form of late, dropping points against West Bromwich Albion in typically irritating fashion. Chelsea created plenty of chances, especially after the 62nd minute substitutions that brought on Juan Mata and Oscar for Fernando Torres and Oriol Romeu. As usual of late though, they struggled to finish those chances by putting the ball into the back of the net.
Here's a few thoughts in the immediate aftermath of another disappointing result:
- We already know that Eden Hazard and Oscar have been excellent signings, but Cesar Azpilicueta and Victor Moses are starting to look like very useful buys as well. With Thorgan Hazard doing nothing but raise his value in Belgium, getting nothing out of Marko Marin would still make me give the summer window an A+. That said, let's hope we get more than nothing out of Marin.
- I hear people clamoring for width every week, but as usual, the vast majority of Chelsea's attack was beginning out wide.
- Ryan Bertrand's attempt to deny Peter Odemwingie at the near post was terrible. I don't know what would prompt him to dive with his hands over his head at the ball, but denying the cross, conceding a penalty, and being sent off in the 50th minute would have been worse than the goal.
- Results aside, Shane Long makes excellent runs in general. If Chelsea had a striker making runs like those for most of the season, we might have doubled our goal tally already.
- Dropping points is never a good thing, but you won't hear me complain at all if this result means Daniel Sturridge supplants Fernando Torres in the Chelsea starting lineup going forward. If "N/A" was an available option on this form, I would have given you all that choice for Fernando today.
- I'm not upset by the decision to rest some players ahead of the huge game against Juventus on Tuesday. It will be easy to second guess it in hindsight, but it was probably the right decision. We really, really need to win or draw that game though.
- At least we aren't QPR.