Chelsea left Singapore with durian on their face (see what I did there?) after playing two and losing two matches at the National Stadium over the past week. On Saturday night, they ended up on the wrong side of a 2:1 scoreline and looked decidedly underwhelming in the process.
Against a pretty smooth and well oiled Inter side Chelsea, like against Bayern, looked lethargic, bereft of ideas, and lacking that killer edge in attack. Conte must have read my report on the Bayern match as they looked more like a back four this time around with Cahill and David Luiz as the central pairing. Perhaps it was 3-4-3 but with the pressure on them it certainly looked more like a traditional back 4. It looked a lot stronger but when you concede two goals and look strong; looking strong doesn’t win you matches. Yo.
I won’t go into the goals too much….okay I actually will this time as there were two major talking pints to be had after the match (you see what I did there too?). Inter’s penalty was never a penalty. Jovetic’s first attempt was saved but then buried the rebound. Then. Then! In the second half, Chelsea were given a life line by one of the most sublime own goals from Kondogbia in the recorded history of football. An atomically accurate 40 yard chip over his own keeper into the net. Beautiful.
Inter saw it through to see the victory.
Stand out player for me was Inter’s number 20; Borja Valero. Aggressive, controlling in his passing, and his work-rate in central midfield was miles above any player in a Chelsea shirt. Again Chelsea didn’t impress me. Moses flatters to deceive, the positive press about Kante didn’t come to fruition for me over these two games. David Luiz is a nut job. Skillful? Absolutely, but he’s prone to just go insane and find himself in the opponent’s box on a whim (this happened) or launching himself into a tackle only to be flat on his ass and the ball (and opponent) merrily going along their way.
Last word on the pitch at the National Stadium. When are they going to sort this out? From day one, it has deteriorated badly when anything is being played on it. It looked terrible tonight; like a patchwork quilt sewed by a lunatic.
Here are the goals/highlights…WATCH IT FOR THE OWN GOAL!:
Chelsea: Courtois, Azpilicueta, Luiz, Cahill, Moses, Kante, Fabregas, Alonso, Willian, Batshuayi, Morata.
Inter Milan: Padelli, D’Ambrosio, Skriniar, Miranda, Nagatomo; Gagliardini, Borja Valero; Perisic, Brozovic, Candreva; Jovetic