BETTER LATE THAN NEVER
Last-gasp Hazard salvages point but Chelsea squander glorious chance
Eden Hazard produced a brilliant equaliser in stoppage time to salvage a point for Chelsea but it could not disguise the feeling that this was a glorious chance squandered in the quest for a top-four finish.
after Tottenham were beaten at Southampton on Saturday and as arsenal and Manchester United duelled in north London, a home win against a team that has not won at Stamford Bridge since 1979 would have lifted Maurizio Sarri’s team to within two points of Spurs, with a game in hand.
But they misfired again, slipped behind when raul Jimenez struck on the break with his team’s only shot of the entire game and then struggled to respond.
‘ When you have only 10 matches to play, every match you are not able to win is a missed opportunity,’ sighed Sarri, having seen his side dominate possession to the tune of 76 per cent, force 13 corners and pepper rui Patricio’s goal with 22 shots.
‘We made a lot of mistakes but we deserved to win. On the other hand, we need to improve with our attacking. We needed to move the ball faster, we needed more movements without the ball, more movements into space, behind the line.’
Chelsea were at times ponderous and unimaginative in their approach play, unable to pierce a well- organised defence which was protected by a deep midfield, until Sarri cut loose from his tactical shackles for the first time. He hauled off Jorginho and threw on attackers, finishing with a back-four, n’Golo Kante and ruben Loftus-Cheek in midfield and four up front, although Loftus-Cheek played as an auxiliary striker, often alongside Gonzalo Higuain.
The home crowd cheered the decision to replace Jorginho, still winning few fans despite his match-winning goal at Fulham a week earlier, still seen as the personification of an unpopular style of football.
‘Jorginho, if the other players don’t move without the ball, is in trouble,’ said Sarri. ‘He is very able to play at one touch, but if you want to play one touch you need movements from the other players.
‘In the end, we changed for the first time in the season the system, and played 4-2-3-1 for the last 20 minutes. But it’s not easy, because the problem wasn’t the system, but our way of playing. We need to move the ball faster. We cannot play five or six touches in that situation.
‘Jorginho is not suitable for 4-2-3-1. So it was only a consequence of the change of system, not the performance. I know him very well. He is a very strong character and a professional.’
Sarri put his decision to abandon his 4-3-3 system down to a lack of adventure from Wolves.
‘For the first time, we were playing against a team who didn’t want to play,’ said the Chelsea manager. ‘They didn’t counter-attack in the last 20 minutes. So we had to try.’
Hazard eventually found the equaliser in the second minute of stoppage time, collecting a short pass from Willian, jinking inside from the left and curling a low shot past Patricio from the edge of the penalty area.
It was his 13th goal in the Premier League this season but only his third since Boxing day. Wolves were deflated but are regularly taking points from the Big Six with nuno espirito Santo’s staunch defence and counter-attacking tactics.
The visitors barely made it out of their own half before the interval but Chelsea’s only effort on goal was from an impossibly tight angle by Higuain.
Ten minutes into the second half, Jimenez fired Wolves ahead with an untidy finish to a clinical counter-attack.
Jimenez and diogo Jota traded passes as they sliced through Chelsea and Cesar azpilicueta recovered just in time to slide in and deflect the Mexican’s shot past Kepa arrizabalaga.
Higuain, Pedro, Loftus-Cheek and Willian forced Patricio into late saves before Hazard stepped up. ‘a great player who can solve the situation in any moment,’ said Sarri.