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Match Report: PL2 Liverpool 3-1 Chelsea. Seven minutes in hell.


In the Premier League 2 a lot of times sides have wildly disparate performance levels over 90 minutes... okay I'll stop there. That was exactly what I said last week. We saw this yet again. This time in a seven minute blitz the team could not recover from. Chelsea conceded three goals in a seven minute hell where our own individual lapses were exploited to devastating effect. When two big teams play the one that wins is the happier one. Winning is a big team feeling. The events that transpired away from home in Liverpudlian land will not prevent the Under 23s aka the Chelsea Development Squad from feeling that big team feeling again soon. We come back strong from our losses. It is the Chelsea way.

Chelsea lined up in a 4-2-3-1. Lucas Bergstrom took his place as our shot-stopper. Captain Dynel Simeu and Jack Wakely were the Centre Back pairing. Henry Lawrence at Right Back and the unloaned Abdul Baba Rahman slotting in at Left Back. Danny Drinkwater alongside Thierno Ballo were positioned in the double pivot in midfield. Dion Rankine played as wide on the right as it is possible to play and Marcel Lewis started on the left. Tino Anjorin took up the role of playing as the most advanced Central Midfielder. Bryan Fiabema was given the chance to lead the line as the Striker up top.

Liverpool 3-1 Chelsea

Scorer: Fiabema 80'

Assist: Elliott

Subs: George Nunn for Baba 69', Ben Elliott for Anjorin 77'.

Bookings: Simeu (Yellow Card) 17'.

A disjointed performance on this occasion, like a trials match. The Chelsea players did not mesh as well as they could in the first half. In fact although all three Liverpool goals were only scored in a seven minute bunch the merseysiders looked like they understood their roles and their own game plan better than their Chelsea counterparts. The game kicked off with the Chelsea lads trying to start strong. The opposing teams circled eachother like two heavyweights of their division feeling one another out, probing for weaknesses, before Chelsea were rocked by three big blows. In the fourteenth minute Wakely lost the man he was marking and the free header proffered was converted at the back post. 1-0 to Liverpool. Three minutes later Simeu gave away a free-kick just outside the box hauling the Liverpool player back in a position that looked like it might be ideal for a dangerous cross, but instead the taker took the chance to sneak it in at Bergstrom's near post. 2-0. At the 20 minute mark Bergstrom was adjudged to have fouled his opponent in a one-on-one situation. If this was a senior First-team match I think he would have been sent off. So it was that after 21 minutes and the ball being put past Bergstrom's outstretched hand low to his left that Chelsea found themselves 3 goals behind. What is the expression of bad things coming in groups of threes? After Liverpool's third Manager Andy Myers switched Ballo to the left, Lewis moved to the number ten position, Anjorin dropped deepest in the midfield pivot and Rankine appeared to be instructed to hold deeper out on the touchline he is always hugging. Chelsea were not without chances in the first half but there weren't many of any real promise. The press that almost resulted in Ballo dispossessing the Liverpool keeper was probably the most notable moment from a Chelsea perspective along with Rankine being played through into the final third.

The second-half saw no changes of personnel at the onset, but there was a change in tactical shape to an asymmetric 3-4-3 in possession. Lawrence as the third centre-back continuing as a hybrid right back. Rankine and Rahman as wing-backs. Lewis(left) and Ballo(right) playing in a front three behind Fiabema. Chelsea managed to win the battle of the second half, exercising much greater control and limiting Liverpool to only one real chance for the duration of the second period, a cutback wanting to be a final pass that Bergstrom intercepted easily enough with his legs. Another way of looking at it is when Liverpool first put us under siege after good interplay in our box from the eleventh minute in the first half they had punished us, but we did not match that feat and the comeback had to wait too long before it could gather any steam. Perhaps I should finish the boxing analogy and say Liverpool sustained the pressure we exerted in the second half like a boxer knowing they were ahead on points after being on the right side of three knockdowns earlier in the bout. However we did improve after the break and can find hope in the room we found on the flanks with Drinkwater switching the play with pinpoint long passes like when Leicester were on their way to an unlikely Premier League title. Anjorin almost scored nine minutes into the second half when he was left unmarked at the far post as the diminutive Lewis had put the ball into a great area from a free-kick. It would be the best chance Chelsea had to score until the penalty that Fiabema placed into the back of goal with ten minutes plus added time to go. This had come as the result of a training ground corner routine fromm the right with Lawrence whipping the ball in toward Simeu who had gotten the right side of a Liverpool defender in the box and being bundled over and Elliott subsequently being fouled by the Liverpool keeper. The best of the rest of the chances were squandered by Baba marauding boldly down the Chelsea left channel. The game ended 3-1 in Liverpool's favour in a downpour that encapsulated the Chelsea loss. We will be better next time. It is the Chelsea way.

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