Lampard still has a million problems
Abraham salvages late point for big spenders after West Brom run riot
THEY can make 8,500 loaves in an hour at the Allied Bakeries plant across the road from the Hawthorns and the smell of fresh bread wafted across the pitch before kick-off last night. They must have been proud of their local team, too: Chelsea might have spent £250 million this summer but, after 27 minutes against West Brom, it looked as if they were toast.
Frank Lampard’s expensively assembled new team were 3-0 down and in disarray. Their new skipper, Thiago Silva, had made a calamitous error on his debut to present West Brom with their second goal, their biggest signing Kai Havertz was struggling to adapt to the pace and rhythm of the game and their other high-profile addition, Timo Werner, looked out of place wide on the left. West Brom, playing with assurance and skill and composure in front of goal, were rampant.
Chelsea were so lamentable in that opening half an hour that their latest signing, Edouard Mendy, the Senegal goalkeeper bought from Rennes for £28m, would have been powerless to do anything to save them. Kepa Arrizabalaga, replaced by Willy Caballero, may have played his last game for the club but, as the goals rattled in, he would have felt fortunate to be sitting in the stands.
This was a West Brom side, after all, that had lost its opening two games 3-0 and 5-2 and had had their manager Slaven Bilic sent off during the defeat by Everton. It is to the credit of Lampard’s side, though, that they had the spirit and the wherewithal to fight back. Lampard made important changes at half-time and Havertz became more influential.
There have been so many new arrivals at Stamford Bridge that some have predicted surprise stars of last season like Tammy Abraham and Mason Mount might fade from the scene but, as Chelsea mounted a superb second-half comeback and the game turned into another of this season’s feasts of entertainment, it was Chelsea’s homegrown players who inspired the team.
Mount, Chelsea’s best player, started their second-half comeback with a terrific goal and, as West Brom wilted, substitute Callum Hudson- Odoi scored a superb second, before Abraham was on hand to tap in from close range deep in injury time to salvage a point for the visitors.
The performance will add to the pressure on Lampard to make his summer outlay pay off but it is inevitable that it will take the raft of new arrivals some time to gel. The class of Havertz is obvious but
Chelsea are still experimenting with how best to accommodate him. The same applies to Werner. For the first 45 minutes, Chelsea looked unbalanced and out of sorts.
But they have not yet had a chance to incorporate Mendy, Ben Chilwell or Hakim Ziyech and logic suggests that they will get better as the season progresses. They can barely be worse than they were in the first half but their resilience, at least, was a good sign.
Caballero had barely touched the ball when West Brom took the lead in the fourth minute. Marcos Alonso cut out a long diagonal ball easily enough but headed it straight to Matheus P e r e i r a . P e r e i r a advanced and played the ball wide to Callum Robinson, who took a touch, then drilled his shot low past Caballero into the bottom corner.
Al o n s o ’s e v e n i n g g o t worse a couple of minutes later when he was booked for pulling back Semi Ajayi a s he galloped down the wing. If Kepa’s Chelsea’s career is over, Alonso might not be far behind him in the march to the taxi rank. When Chi l wel l , the close-season signing from Leicester, is fit, he will go straight i nto the side at left-back. Despite their poor start, Chelsea should have been level after 12 minutes. Reece James curled in a perfect cross to the back post but Abraham could only sidefoot it high and wide as he ran on to it. As the fight for places intensifies, it is the
kind of miss he cannot afford. Not that he was alone in his profligacy. Three minutes later, Mount wriggled away from his marker with a beautiful turn and picked out Werner 12 yards out. Werner met the cross on the volley but lifted it too high and it clipped the top of the crossbar on the way into touch.
Midway through the half, Chelsea fell further behind. Silva, playing his first game since he appeared for Paris Saint- Germain in the Champions League final, and Mateo Kovacic swapped short passes in Chelsea’s back line and Silva let the return run under his foot. It rolled straight to Robinson, who accelerated towards goal and had time to pick his spot before he rammed a low shot across Caballero and into the far corner for his second goal of the evening. Thiago hung his head.
Three minutes later, West Brom went further ahead courtesy of more poor Chelsea defending. Darnell Furlong was allowed to flick on a corner at the near post and it fell to Kyle Bartley, who was unmarked at the back post. He sidefooted the ball on the half-volley past Caballero. On the Chelsea bench, Lampard seethed.
The Chelsea boss put Kovacic and Alonso out of their misery at half- time and brought on Cesar Azpilicueta and Hudson-Odoi.
Less than 10 minutes into the second half, it paid off. Azpilicueta took the ball in space on the left and played it inside to Mount, who sidestepped a challenge and lashed a swerving shot past Sam Johnstone.
Twenty minutes from the end, Chelsea pulled another goal back. Werner played the ball into the path of Hudson-Odoi, who played a neat one-two with Havertz, then opened his body to slide a precise shot past Johnstone. Suddenly, Chelsea were pulsing with belief again and West Brom were clinging on.
Chelsea nearly equalised early in injury time when Werner whistled a volley just over the bar but a minute later, they completed their comeback. There was a suggestion of handball against Havertz when a cross was drifted into the box but the ball fell to Mount and, when Johnstone could not hold his shot, Abraham prodded it over the line.
WEST BROM (5-4-1): Johnstone 6; Furlong 7, Ajayi 7, Bartley 7, O’Shea 6, Townsend 5; Pereira 6 (Field 90min), Livermore 7, Sawyers 7, Diangana 6 (Phillips, 74, 6); Robinson 8 (Robson-Kanu 66, 6). Booked: Furlong. Subs (not used): Button, Harper, Edwards, Kipre. CHELSEA (4-2-3-1): Caballero 5; James 5, Christensen 6, Silva 5 (Giroud 73, 6), Alonso 4 (Azplicueta 45, 6); Kante 6, Kovacic 5 (Hudson-Odoi 45, 8); Mount 7, Havertz 6, Werner 6; Abraham 5. Booked: Alonso, James, Christensen. Subs ( not used): Arrizabalaga, Jorginho, Barkley, Tomori. Referee: J Moss( W Riding )6.