Barkley blows it for Blues as slick Spaniards steal the glory
CHELSEA 0 VALENCIA 1
AT least Ross Barkley cannot be blamed for a lack of confidence. ‘No, no... it’s me... no problem,’ the Chelsea substitute seemed to be saying to team-mates as he prepared to take the late penalty that only he seemed to think belonged to him at Stamford Bridge.
On the field for less than ten minutes and surrounded by Chelsea’s man-of-the-moment Tammy Abraham, last night’s man-of-the-match Willian and the last man to score a regulation time penalty for the club, Jorginho, Barkley nevertheless decided that this was to be his moment.
And so it turned out. This was, indeed, to be his moment. Just not for the reason he hoped.
Barkley never looked like missing until he did. A puff of the cheeks, a short run-up and a lofted shot that struck the top of the bar and sailed into the crowd, taking Chelsea’s hopes of salvaging this game with it.
Players should not be criticised for confidence. Barkley is a young English footballer in the process of moving his career through the gears again for club and country after a couple of years in the shadows. The 25-year-old clearly thought he was the man for this occasion.
But we have seen a situation like this before this season, when Manchester United’s Paul Pogba took a penalty from Marcus Rashford in a Premier League game at Wolves and missed it.
Certainly it is puzzling when this happens at elite level. We presume Chelsea do have a designated penalty taker and manager Frank Lampard claimed it was, indeed, Barkley. But if that is the case then why the need for such discussion on the field? At the very least it served to muddy the waters.
‘Ross is the penalty-taker,’ stated Lampard. ‘He was in pre-season and scored a couple. He has been when he’s started and he was when he came on today — and he missed it.
‘I don’t know what the conversation was, but Jorginho and Willian were the takers on the pitch — when Ross comes on, he becomes the penalty-taker.’
Before this, Barkley had only taken one in anything but a shoot-out in his career and that was four years ago. The last kick Chelsea were awarded was in Istanbul against Liverpool in the Super Cup and Jorginho took it successfully.
Barkley’s miss was cruel on Lampard as Chelsea deserved and needed at least a point against Valencia here.
On a bad night, Lampard also lost Mason Mount to injury. The young midfielder was left in a heap by former Arsenal player Francis Coquelin in only the sixth minute. Coquelin took the ball with a lunging tackle but followed through to hurt Mount. He received a yellow card but it could have been red.
After that incident, Chelsea were still the better team for long periods.
Willian came close three times and Abraham missed with a header. The second period wanted a little for intensity at times, but Valencia did become more dangerous on the counter-attack as time wore on and scored on 74 minutes.
Daniel Parejo —once of QPR — chipped the ball into the path of a diagonal run from Rodrigo — once of Bolton — and his volley was mishit a little as it deceived Chelsea goalkeeper Kepa and found the top corner.
Chelsea were asleep as Rodrigo (left) made his run and replays suggested it was Jorginho who had lost his man.
Chelsea had fashioned chances prior to that and they kept coming in the closing stages. The late handball by Valencia right back Daniel Wass was clear enough for referee Cuneyt Cakir to award after a look at the VAR screen with four minutes to go.
Chelsea defender Fikayo Tomori — excellent at both ends of the field — very much headed the ball on to his opponent’s hand but that is enough to qualify as an offence these days.
Chelsea deserved their lifeline but they let it go. Both the players and their rookie manager will need to learn lessons from this. CHELSEA (3-4-2-1): Kepa 6; Zouma 6 (Giroud 73), Christensen 6, Tomori 7; Azpilicueta 7, Kovacic 6 (Barkley 80), Jorginho 6, Alonso 7; Mount 6 (Pedro 16), Willian 8; Abraham 7. Subs not used: Caballero, Guehi, Pulisic, Batshuayi. Booked: Jorginho, Giroud. VALENCIA (4-4-2): Cillessen 7; Wass 6, Garay 6, Gabriel 7, Gaya 7; Coquelin 6, Parejo 6, Kondogbia 7, Cheryshev 7 (Diakhaby 90); Rodrigo 7 (Lee 90), Gameiro 6 (Gomez 70). Subs not used: Domenech, Costa, Guedes, Torres. Booked: Coquelin. Man of the match: Willian. Referee: Cuneyt Cakir (Turkey). Attendance: 39,469.