The home side started the game with great purpose and intent, buoyed by the constant din of the drums and chanting from the stands, and they almost took the lead inside of the first 5-6 minutes, with Ademola Looman especially looking dangerous.
We survived that initial salvo and the following 10-15 minutes as well — Acheampong putting in a couple crucial blocks and tackles along the way — and would take the lead halfway through the period with our first meaningful attack: Reece James (just inside
by a toe) picking out João Pedro in the middle and JP finishing with a toepoke between the goalkeeper’s legs.
Chelsea improved as the half wore on, and Neto almost had a tap-in just before the break, but we’d take just the one-goal lead into the second half.
The two sides traded chances after the restart: James firing wide with the goal at his mercy; Lookman scoring from a very obvious offside position at the other. Unfortunately, Scamacca was not in an offside position just a few minutes later as he nodded in Atalanta’s equalizer. Somehow we lost track of the only center forward in the box.
Atalanta threatened a quick second but we survived and looked to settle back in as the game calmed down. Unfortunately, we’d settle right back into losing, conceding the winner in the 83rd minute after just letting De Ketelaere run with the ball into the box and power a shot on target. Sánchez probably had it covered, but the deflection of a dangled leg made the save nigh on impossible.
Chelsea’s response to going behind was as tame as most of our efforts had been all night. JP had a sniff at the last second, but hit the goalkeeper from point blank range.
Carefree.
- A few changes from Maresca, with Acheampong in at right back and James in midfield once again, alongside Caicedo
- Chalobah (who was on a yellow) off at the half for Fofana, not ideal even for Maresca’s penchant for mixing things up in defense all the time; Fofana then got an accidental boot in the face and his eye started swelling up and he had to be taken off for the final 15 minutes and added-on time (Tosin on)
- Chelsea stay on 10 points; work to do still to ensure a top-24 finish; top-8 now unlikely; games against Pafos (H) and Napoli (A) remain
- Four without a win now in all competitions (2 draws, 2 defeats)
- Next up: Everton at home, on Saturday
- KTBFFH
