Chelsea’s experimental lineup made a positive enough start to the game, and we would get our reward with an early goal. Juan Jesus blocked a free kick with his arm, and though the commentary painted it as an unfortunate incident, the defender literally moved his arm towards the ball to block it. Since he was in the penalty area at the time, the referee pointed to the spot and Enzo Fernández, as usual, made no mistake.
But the goal would prove to be almost a detriment to our play, as Napoli responded
by repeatedly exposing our makeshift defensive setup. Chelsea were in absolute disarray far too often, and it was only a matter of time before the hosts would reap their own rewards.
A tremendous individual effort from young Antonio Vergara — the 23-year-old’s first goal for the club — got them back on level terms, at which point the wheels appeared to completely come off the Chelsea setup. A cutback would find Rasmus Hojlund to slam home from close range before the first half was out to put Napoli into the lead.
Cole Palmer came on at the half, and that seemed to settle us down a little bit, but failed to provide any of the needed cutting edge that we would’ve needed to truly get back into the game. A couple more changes just before the hour-mark restored the team to a more familiar setup, but also did little to change the flow of the game. Napoli were more than happy to see out the result, and we didn’t really test that …
… until João Pedro blasted a long-range effort past Alex Meret out of practically nothing! And there were still nearly 30 minutes still to play, with the points there for the taking for either side — a draw doing absolutely nothing for either side.
Romelu Lukaku arrived on the scene, but it was our current center forward, João Pedro to win it instead, this time expertly picking out the far corner with a right-footed finish after being released by Palmer. Chelsea were back up to sixth in the live table, with under 10 minutes of regulation time remaining.
We still had time for Lukaku to miss a sitter (Bob coming up big again!) after a lapse of concentration at the back, but we would hang on to the result in the end.
Carefree.
- Just one recognized center back in the starting XI; will be curious to hear what was Rosenior’s intention with this setup, which was kept unchanged until just before the hour-mark
- JP now the outright scoring leader on the team
- Gittens getting subbed as a sub
- Conte and Champions League, the worst love story
- Napoli’s first defeat at home in any competition in over a year
- Chelsea finish sixth in the table, with all five Premier League teams in the top eight
- The draw for the Round of 32 will be held on Friday
- Next up: big game against West Ham at the Bridge, Saturday evening
- KTBFFH
