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Their unbeaten run lasted longer than anyone's in Europe, but finally reality struck Chelsea. For the first time in England, Maurizio Sarri tasted defeat. Tottenham Hotspur defeated Chelsea 3-1 at the Wembley Stadium in a match the hosts completely dominated.
Any honest Chelsea fan will admit that the scoreline could have easily been a lot worse. From start to finish, The Blues were completely outplayed and outclassed. Numerous things went wrong for Chelsea in the London derby, and here is a look at them.
#4 Jorginho neutralised
It's no secret that Jorginho is the heart of Maurizio Sarri's system. Everything the Italian wishes to do revolves around the former Napoli midfielder. However, Tottenham completely nullified his presence by man-marking him.
This was not the first time an opposing team has done the same, as Everton did the same thing in Chelsea's last match. As is clearly visible, if Chelsea's regista is stopped, the team struggles to play the way the manager wishes them to do.
While Jorginho himself needs to do better, the challenge is on Maurizio Sarri's head. It's a tactical problem he needs to find a solution to. He needs to figure out a way to ensure teams are not able to mark Jorginho out of games so easily. The Italian also needs to find a Plan B for such situations. He needs to give his team an alternative way to build-up play when the Jorginho route is not possible.
This will also require players around to step up, which was not the case yesterday. One performance which was a huge let-down was Mateo Kovacic's. The Croatian is not someone who offers goals and assists, but his control and stability is something Chelsea needs in midfield.
However, that was not the case today as the Real Madrid loanee produced an extremely disappointing performance. He offered nothing going forward, and with Jorginho already neutralised, it inevitably created a situation for Chelsea where there was no creative outlet in midfield.
#3 David Luiz
While it was a collectively poor team performance from Chelsea, and picking individual performances might be unfair, one that stood out was David Luiz's. The Brazilian has always divided opinions, and there are very few who trust his defending. For many Chelsea fans, he was a ticking time bomb, and they will feel vindicated today
In one way or another, Luiz was responsible for each of the three goals Tottenham scored. In the first goal he gave away a needless free-kick, for the second he confused his own goalkeeper after leaving him blind sighted, and Son ran past him with extreme ease for the third goal.
While results have usually covered it up, this was not the first time Luiz was at fault while defending this season. There is no doubting Luiz's ball-playing abilities are world class, but the question has been asked for long - can Sarri trust him in the back four?
#2 Fullbacks offered nothing
While Luiz made the highlighted mistakes, blaming him solely is not correct at all. The truth was, the entire Chelsea back-line was in shambles at Wembley. A major reason for this was the incompetent performance of the two fullbacks, Cesar Azpilicueta and Marcos Alonso. A lot of Chelsea fans want upgrades in these positions, and the reasoning behind their wish was visible clearly at Wembley.
Both were constantly caught out of position, and left too much space for the center-backs to cover. While Azpilicueta registered a late assist, the truth was neither offered anything going forward for large periods of the match. Both fullbacks never attempted to take on players on their flanks and put crosses into the box. As a result, Chelsea had no width or penetration in their attacking play.
#1 Part of the process
Anyone who has been following Chelsea closely this season would have seen this coming. It was visible that The Blues' performance levels had dropped for a month, and they were not playing as well as required. In truth, Chelsea's start to the season as they adapted to the new system was a surprise, and the team only got a reality check today.
There were always problems in this Chelsea team, this match only made it visible for everyone to see. Ultimately it's part of the process, and something like this was always going to happen. It will not be a surprise if a few more of such results follow.
However, it is important for the fans and club to maintain some perspective. It is only the club's first defeat, and they have still done better than expected so far this season. This was only Chelsea's first defeat of the season, and they remain on the right path. Maurizio Sarri must take this defeat as a wake-up call, and learn from the errors.
