An impotent attack and some truly pathetic defensive work have combined to see Chelsea's last hope at silverware this season extinguished. The Blues lost at Everton by a 2-0 scoreline, with former Chelsea player Romelu Lukaku predictably scoring the winner, as well as the second of the match.
Guus Hiddink's side played some of the worst attacking football we've seen from Chelsea this season, but for the first 75 minutes, Everton managed to be equally pathetic, and I honestly expected a 0-0 scoreline. Then, the Blues' back four reminded us that they can be far more damaging than our attackers, hilariously allowing Lukaku a pair of unbelievable easy chances, both of which he buried in the back of the net. Diego Costa, clearly sick of this shit, decided to get himself sent off in an altercation with Gareth Barry, earning himself a suspension, and probably leading to the eventual Chelsea debut of Alexandre Pato. At least someone probably has reason to be happy following this ridiculous shitshow...
- That was some truly awful refereeing. Michael Oliver didn't make any game changing mistakes today, but it took him less than ten minutes to lose control of the match, which became mostly unwatchable as a result.
- Imagine being forced to watch Tom Cleverley and Gareth Barry every week. Yikes.
- When is the last match that Pedro played without at least one lengthy dribble that ended up out of play?
- Chelsea certainly have plenty of needs this summer, but some athleticism might top the list. The midfield three of Cesc Fabregas, John Obi Mikel, and Nemanja Matic might be the slowest in England, and while all three (should) offer something valuable to the squad, together, they're a massive liability.For all the obvious warts with Ramires, he was the sort of player that could make any two of those three at least semi-functional.
- I'm truly excited that Kenedy is getting minutes all of a sudden, but can we please use Baba Rahman at left back? Play him over Pedro, and inject some pace into the attack.
- I hope Antonio Conte can teach defending, as we've seemingly forgotten how to do it.
- With the loss, there will only be nine more matches to be played this season. Honestly, that might be nine too many.