Chelsea put on a show at Stamford Bridge yesterday as they were on a mission to react to another couple of weeks of turmoil at the club off the back of four defeats in a row.
Our opponents are rooted to the bottom of League One and I fully expected a comfortable Chelsea win, predicting 3-0. But you can only beat what is in front of you, and Chelsea did that in style. It was more the importance of using this opponent to take our frustrations out from the last couple of months and attempt to build on it going forward.
I said last week, it was going to be the ideal opportunity and opponent for us to step back up and smash, in order to help attempt to get some form of normal service resuming at the club again going into a crucial part of the season.
It was a chance for a few players to have some confidence boosters, and perhaps that is what Liam Rosenior thought about when he handed Cole Palmer the captains armband for the evening. It wasn’t exactly vintage Palmer, but he was comfortable striding around the pitch getting on the ball a lot. Had a goal taken off him and declared as an own goal.
The early goal helped of course but it was pure one way traffic all game and a more than comfortable stroll in the park for Chelsea.
We had 20 attempts on goal with over half on target (11), so it could have been even worse for the struggling lower league side. Port Vale only managed 4 attempts on our goal, with none on target.
As expected, Chelsea dominated the game with 77% possession and never really had to even go up through the gears.
Some decent performances from Malo Gusto, Tosin Adarabioyo, Estevao, and Andrey Santos in particular stood out. But there was some disappointment with Liam Delap coming off the bench and being very quiet against a terrible opposition. That was a real shame he didn’t take his chance.
Alejandro Garnacho also came on and squandered a chance to score. But he did step up to convert a penalty in stoppage time.
Thankfully, we were also able to rest Moises Caicedo and Marc Cucurella, not needing to send on the ‘big guns’.
As I say, Chelsea were expected to win this game against a team who fielded a starting Xl with 8 free transfers and 2 loan players. But being allowed to run riot this weekend was certainly not a bad thing for us during what has been a nightmare of an international break for the club in general.
Now, we are off to Wembley for the FA Cup semi finals and in for a good chance of even making the final and going all the way, dare I say. Arsenal were dumped out by Southampton, and although Manchester City are still there, Chelsea will be holding some belief that they could actually win this competition as things shape up nicely there at least.
Good response, up the Chels!