Deadly Deulofeu makes it blue Monday for Chelsea
ANTONIO CONTE pursed his lips and pushed his chin firmly into his chest, like a man trying to protect himself against a torrent that threatens to engulf him whole.
The fallout from this stinging and comprehensive defeat, coming on the heels of their capitulation against Bournemouth last week, will be ruthless, and rightly so. And the Chelsea that emerges from the wreckage of this game may not be the same Chelsea that began it.
Business as usual is not an option. Not with one win in five league games and one of the world’s richest clubs on the brink of falling out of the Champions League qualification places.
Not with morale at such a bone-crushing low. Not when you concede three goals in the last seven minutes. Not when your fans are so shorn of enthusiasm that they are barracking one of their own players and ironically chanting, “Barcelona, we’re coming for you.” Gallows humour is all well and good, but everyone knows what comes next.
A few words for Watford, who played magnificently, barring a weird 10-minute period in the second half when they lost their nerve and almost lost two points. But their reaction to Eden Hazard’s equaliser was just as spectacular as the 25-yard strike itself.
RIPPED
First Daryl Janmaat, and then Gerard Deulofeu, and then finally Roberto Pereyra in injury time, ripped 10-man Chelsea to shreds. “Champions of England?” the disbelieving Watford fans sang. “You’re having a laugh.”
There could have been more goals for Watford, whose gleeful fans were baying for five by the end.
Chelsea, meanwhile, were disjointed and distracted, vague and vaguely awful. Hazard, their one player of substance, spent most of the game toiling without the ball up front. Olivier Giroud’s debut from the bench was not one he will remember with any great nostalgia. Meanwhile, a knock to Pedro added injury to insult.
It was a game notable also for Tiemoue Bakayoko’s uproarious half-hour cameo – honestly, Tom Cruise in ‘Tropic Thunder’ had nothing on this – in which he proved himself utterly incapable of performing any of the basic functions of a professional footballer. Trapping the ball, passing the ball, marking an opponent, and ultimately even staying on the pitch. Trudging off after a second yellow card, the fans serenaded him with the words “you’re f***ing s***”. The Chelsea fans, that is. Bakayoko’s relationship with them is as broken as his own confidence.
Bakayoko’s two yellow cards each followed a similar pattern: losing the ball with a heavy touch, and then piling in illegally to win it back, first on Capoue and then on Richarlison. The second was one of those that looked worse than it was, but given the nightmare he was having, the dismissal felt like an act of clemency.
Willian was sacrificed to make way for Cesc Fabregas. But just as Chelsea would have been hoping to limp to half-time and regroup, their night was about to take a turn from the worse. Janmaat released Deulofeu, who had cleverly curved his run. And from the moment Deulofeu got his toe to the ball before the advancing Thibaut Courtois, events unfolded with a mundane predictability: the dying swan dive by Deulofeu, the penalty award by Mike Dean, the outraged protestations from Courtois, the bullet shot by Deeney.
Yet somehow Chelsea found a late second wind with what proved to be the sting of a dying wasp as Hazard darted inside Adrian Mariappa and curled an unstoppable shot from 25 yards.
Watford seemed to remember they were a man up, and set about recapturing what they had lost. Janmaat barrelled in from the right, played a one-two and finished neatly with his left-foot. With the game opening up, Deulofeu ran through to tuck home two minutes from time, before Pereyra rounded off the night.
It was no less than Watford deserved. Conte, meanwhile, tucked his hands in his pockets and turned sadly away. His fate, you feel, remains in the balance. (© Independent News Service)