Columnist and Chelsea legend Pat Nevin welcomes tonight’s cup game arriving so soon after the weekend setback…
Not only is this season a roller coaster, the games are roller coasters of emotion as well right now. At West Ham after going behind, the team then went down to 10 men, then got back into it via Gary Cahill but all to no avail with the Hammers scoring a late winner. It was a form of torture for those with Chelsea’s best wishes at heart.
Congratulations to West Ham for a hugely impressive start to the season and visiting them was always going to be tough, but to have more of the possession at their home ground even with a man down just makes the scoreline even harder to swallow.
It was interesting to listen to Gary Cahill in the aftermath not wanting to make excuses, not looking for sympathy but just saying that they need to keep working ever harder to turn this run of results around. We all know about the bad luck with Cesc being just offside, Zoumabeing millimetres from scoring but it doesn’t matter, it is the results that matter and the performances that matter to a lesser extent.
Actually, it is the results almost totally right now because the performances have been improving a bit. The win against Villa was better, then the first 70 minutes against Dynamo Kiev was very like the Chelsea of last season, and much of the play at the weekend wasn’t bad at all. The results however are still not good enough obviously.
I suppose it doesn’t help that in a third of the Premier League games this season Chelsea have managed to be down to 10 men for half of the game. First there was Thibaut Courtoisagainst Swansea, then JT against West Brom and of course Nemanja Matic at the weekend. It is not easy just now and playing with 10 men certainly doesn’t help.
Hopefully tonight we can keep 11 men on the pitch against Stoke City. It is once again a very interesting set of choices facing the manager on who to pick. Does he go as strong as possible to get us back on the winning trail again? After all it is vital to build up confidence within the entire group. Does he go experimental in much the same way as he did in the tie against Walsall? Certainly a few players need game time and John Mikel Obi, Ramires,Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Kenedy and Loic Remy all performed admirably that night.
Loic Remy, Falcao and Ramires celebrate a goal in the previous round at Walsall
But, and it is a big but, the Britannia is a tough old place to go to on a Tuesday night and Mark Hughes’s men are hurting right now. This will be no simple tippy-tappy fun game in the Capital One Cup; it could be and probably will be a battle.
I have even heard it whispered by some fans that losing this one and being able to concentrate on the League and the Champions League may not be the worst outcome. I personally like to keep on going on all fronts, but that probably means a decent bit of rotation in the squad, including tonight. We will see, but most importantly I have never known any footballer walking out at the start of a game thinking anything other than, ‘I want to win this one.’
As the old cliché goes, the best thing you can do after a defeat is play another game as quickly as possible and tonight, followed by Liverpool on Saturday, is just what the doctor ordered. The Liverpool game will have its own interest of course, not least because Jurgen Klopp will be in the opposite dugout. He will almost certainly improve Liverpool in time but Chelsea v Liverpool passion is there whoever is in either dugout.
It is also an opportunity to go level on points with Liverpool which would give a little piece of satisfaction in difficult times for us all. Any comfort will do at this moment I am sure you will agree.
Due to a technical matter, the quiz will return next week.