BITTER-SWEDE
Blues maul Malmo, but lose their strikeforce
NO shame, no energy and, by the end of it, no fit strikers left either.
And yet Thomas Tuchel treated the Stamford Bridge crowd to the club’s biggest win of his reign.
There was no shame, we were told, in a recent last-gasp win against Southampton and barely hanging on at Brentford.
The players had no energy, so Tuchel said, but it was an arguably full-strength team he put out last night against the Swedes, who even before the game had been the whipping boys of Group H.
Maybe it was a night for caution and some cotton wool.
Then, perhaps, the sight of Romelu Lukaku limping off after the penalty challenge that enabled Chelsea to make sure of the points after just 20 minutes could have been avoided.
Worse still was to come when Timo Werner followed him back to the dressing room before half-time with a pulled hamstring.
Both strikers gone in a game Chelsea could have won with a team of right-backs.
Even Andreas Christensen, who has been on the books of the club since 2013 without so much as a sniff of getting his name on the scoresheet, managed to find the net. His volley from Thiago Silva’s clever clipped pass into the box opened the scoring after nine minutes.
Malmo came with 10 men behind the ball and were just going to need unpicking. Forget poor recent form, the skill with which Lukaku drew the challenge to win the early spot-kick was always going to be enough to do that.
The moment that Jorginho inevitably converted, Chelsea’s three points were never in doubt.
Lukaku hobbled off as soon as it hit the back of the net.
Kai Havertz, back in the false nine position he played in the Champions League final, missed a golden opportunity just before the break when his shot was saved by Johan Dahlin.
But a change of Malmo goalkeeper at the break meant a change of fortune and, when put through early in the second half by Werner’s replacement Callum Hudson Odoi, Havertz’s chipped finish went in off the
farpost.
Chelsea have not won by four goals since they put Morecambe to the sword in the FA Cup in one of Frank Lampard’s final games. But that margin was equalled when Antonio Rudiger’s delightful one-two with Havertz was ended by an unceremonious clattering from Eric Larsson.
Jorginho did the honours again and it was very much job done. But at what cost?
Games are coming thick and fast with the EFL Cup rearing its head along with, of course, the Premier League and Champions League.
CHELSEA (3-4-3): Mendy 6; Rudiger 8, Silva 7, Christensen 7; Azpilicueta 6 (James 66, 6), Jorginho 9, Kante 8 (Saul 66, 6), Chilwell 7 (Alonso 66, 6); Mount 7, Lukaku 7 (Havertz 21, 7), Werner 5 (Hudson-Odoi 44, 6). Goals: Christensen 9, Jorginho 20 pen, 57 pen, Havertz 48.
MALMO (5-3-2): Ellborg 6 (Diawara 46, 5); Larsson 6, Olsson 5, Brorsson 6, Nielsen 5, Berget 5 (Moisander 82); Innocent 6, Christiansen 6 (Nalic 58), Pena 6 (Rakip 58); Colak 6, Birmancevic 5 (Abubakari 46, 5).