Barkley’s spot of bother
Penalty miss means losing start for Chelsea Holders Liverpool beaten at Napoli
The No8 on his back and a penalty in the Champions League at a critical moment at Stamford Bridge, but it was Ross Barkley’s misfortune that he was unable to show the same composure his manager once channelled to rescue Chelsea in moments such as these.
Not that there were many times during Frank Lampard’s days as a Chelsea player when his team found themselves a goal behind at home and four minutes remaining against opposition they would usually expect to beat. A strange end to a bad night for Chelsea. With a penalty to save a point in a game in which they had underperformed, Barkley insisted on taking a spot kick that others seemed to think should have been theirs.
Lampard had watched his team struggle to create chances, and then get caught with less than 20 minutes remaining by a counterpunch goal from Valencia, underperforming this season but with more ringcraft than their opponents. Chelsea had lost Mason Mount early on to a dismally cynical follow-through lunge from Francis Coquelin and they had failed to create much of note after that.
A goal down, and then after a lengthy recommended review, the referee Cuneyt Cakir went to the pitchside monitor to look at the replays of a blatant handball from the Danish defender Daniel Wass.
As Cakir turned back to point to the spot, Barkley, recently on as a substitute, seized the ball and was in no mood to give it back, waving off the dissenting views from Jorginho and, in particular, Willian.
The Brazilian was still staring daggers at his English team-mate, making his first Champions League appearance, when the latter swept the ball against the bar and the sense of hope was sucked out of the home support.
Lampard described it as a “harsh lesson in Champions League football”, and it was easy to divine from his mood that this was a defeat that had been hard to take. He was clear that Barkley was the designated penalty-taker from pre-season, a status he assumed from Jorginho and Willian as soon as he stepped on the pitch. As clear as the manager thought the situation was, it certainly did not look that way in the moment when ownership of the penalty was being disputed.
Defeat in the first group game means that there will be little room for error, and Chelsea must win at the Mestalla on Nov 27 in the return fixture. Ajax swept aside Lille 3-0 in the other group game and Chelsea now find themselves needing to win when they visit the French side early next month.
Plenty for Lampard to ponder. He defended the performance, but Chelsea looked one-paced in attack. They were unlucky to concede the second-half goal from Rodrigo, but these are the margins in Europe’s elite competition. It is also the reality for Chelsea fans this season if they are to back their manager and his youth project as they compete against more experienced opposition.
Valencia have been through a crisis of their own this season, with manager Marcelino sacked and replaced by Albert Celades, whose
first game on Saturday ended in a 5-2 defeat by Barcelona. His side were set up to stop Chelsea, with French midfielder Geoffrey Kondogbia excellent in screening the defence and Valencia growing in confidence as they recognised the limitations of their opposition.
Lampard picked the same team who had finished the win over Wolverhampton Wanderers, the club back in the Champions League after last season’s journey in the second-class carriage of European football. Chelsea looked at their best when they got the ball in quickly to Tammy Abraham and Willian, although they did that too rarely. On the touchline, their manager seemed to be willing them to go quicker and earlier with their passes. It was not helped by the enforced early substitution of Mount, who fell to that bad tackle by the former Arsenal midfielder Coquelin, a boot smashed into the Chelsea man’s right ankle, trapping his foot against the ground.
Mount did his best to soldier on but, eventually, was replaced by Pedro, who never got into the game. Coquelin did come over to apologise, as Mount’s departure became inevitable.
The best chances crafted were from Willian, whose run after 35 minutes took him away from Valencia captain Daniel Parejo and then Kondogbia, but he could not quite get the required angle on his shot.
Likewise, he took a good ball from Mateo Kovacic on his chest late in the first half and pivoted
around it, but never got over the shot. Otherwise, it was all too predictable and the ball passed ever sideways. A poor challenge from Kovacic on Jose Gaya gave away a free-kick just moments after Olivier Giroud had come on for Kurt Zouma. The three-man back line was reshuffled, Pedro moved over to fill a space at right wing-back and between them they lost the run of Rodrigo. He got the slightest of touches on the free-kick from Parejo, which took it past Kepa Arrizabalaga.
Lampard tried to strike an upbeat tone afterwards, and he could laugh about the prospect of playing at Anfield on Sunday as being some kind of tonic.
Above all, when his young team get chances to rescue games, he needs them to be taken.