Players Not Blameless As Chelsea Concede Another Late Goal

Rafa Benitez will bear the brunt of the Chelsea‘s fans criticism after the Blues lost 3-2 to Newcastle today. But the Chelsea players are not blameless. Look at the three Newcastle goals today.

On the first one, Ivanovic I think it was gave the Newcastle player all the time in the world to cross the ball and John Terry was outjumped and beaten in the air by Gutierrez.

One the second goal, what was Petr Cech thinking when he parried Gouffran shot back into into the middle of the goal for Sissoko to score.

And then for the third goal, which one again came down Chelsea’s right, Ivanovic gave Santon far too much space near the Chelsea box and his pass was smashed home by Sissoko again (why wan’t Lampard closer to him?).

Three bad defensive goals, and three mistakes by Chelsea veterans. And it was the same at Reading in midweek. Ivanovic and Cahill were to square for the first goal, and then Chelsea could not clear a simple long ball into the box. That is simply not good enough, especially for European Champions.

I am not saying that Rafa is blameless. His record as Chelsea manager is abysmal. Played 21 Won 10 Drawn 6 Lost 5. 47% winning record. Rafa has 1 win in his last 6 games and has won 3 games won in 2013.

But the problems that Chelsea have are more than just Rafa. This is a poor side that is making a lot of silly defensive mistakes. It gets overlooked in the double celebrations, but Chelsea finished sixth in the league last season, five points out of a Champions League place. And at the moment, that looks like where Chelsea were finish again. And I don’t know if changing managers again will change that.