BLUES LEFT
Juve too smart for Chelsea as boss Tuchel gets tactics wrong
THOMAS TUCHEL did not start with a single English player in his starting lineup – and then brought on five.
It just about summed up a thoroughly bad night for Chelsea as Tuchel got it all wrong as the visitors crashed to a second damaging defeat in the space of five days.
Chelsea looked as if they are still suffering from a hangover from their defeat to title rivals Manchester City on Saturday as they were outfought, outwitted and outplayed by Juventus. This was definitely a reality check for the Blues, the honeymoon looks to be coming to an end for Tuchel, who is suddenly seeing his selections and tactics questioned having been untouchable for so long.
Chelsea lost to Federico Chiesa’s goal 11 seconds after the restart and could not recover even after Ben Chilwell came on at half-time and four England teammates were brought on to try and save the day.
But even Ruben LoftusCheek, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Trevoh Chalobah and Ross Barkley could not turn things around on a wretched and frustrating night in Turin.
Incredibly, this is only the second time Tuchel (far right) has lost two games in a row since taking charge at Stamford Bridge.
But this would have hurt as he warned before the game that the expectation levels have gone up for his players after they won the Champions League in May… and suddenly they do look vulnerable.
English clubs traditionally do not do very well in Turin as only Manchester United have won here since Arsenal in 1980, but this is hardly a vintage Juventus line-up. Even so, they still had way too much for a sloppy Chelsea.
Juventus are a team in transition as Max Allegri has been brought back as manager to try and recapture former glories with a squad which lost Cristiano Ronaldo in the summer.
That prompted Chelsea to go on the front foot, attack from the start and push Juventus back. It was Romelu
Lukaku who went close early on as Marcos Alonso’s short corner found him unmarked, although the Chelsea No.9 fired straight at Juventus keeper Wojciech Szczesny.
But it was Chelsea’s own sloppiness which handed the initiative to the opposition. They got away with it once when Adrien Rabiot misplaced a simple pass on a counterattack.
But Mateo Kovacic’s poor pass to Andreas Christensen let in Federico Chiesa, the Juventus forward went clean through but then dragged his shot just wide across goal. Chelsea had all the possession but it was Juve who had the better chances. Federico Bernardeschi hammered a 20-yard freekick but Rabiot inadvertently blocked the shot which just about summed up the standard of finishing in the first half. Hakim Ziyech and Kai Havertz were poor and gave Lukaku very little support while Tuchel had seen enough and brought on Chilwell for Alonso. However, even that substitution quickly backfired. Within the blink of an eye, Juventus were in front.
Chelsea had not woken up for the start of the second half, Bernardeschi played a through-ball and Chiesa latched on to it and slashed the ball into the roof of the net.
Other substitutions followed, Chelsea pushed forward but just could not find a way through.
And it was Lukaku, who so often struggled against Juventus when he was at Inter Milan, who missed a glorious late opportunity as he slashed their best chance of the night well wide.