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It was a shocking and unexpected result for Chelsea as they were beaten at home by Valencia in the Champions League opener last night.
Chelsea returned to Europe's elite football competition after a one-year gap as they only managed to qualify for Europa League last season and went on to win the final at Baku.
The Blues were expected to win in style as the Valencia squad cannot be fairly compared to the Chelsea squad on paper, and the Spanish club has not been having its best start to the season. They went into last night's game following a 5-2 drubbing by FC Barcelona on Sunday.
Meanwhile, Chelsea were in blistering form, having won 5-2 on away from home against Wolves on Saturday. The game saw Chelsea academy graduates Fikayo Tomori, Mason Mount and Tammy Abraham score goals for their club, with Abraham scoring a hat-trick in the game.
Last night, Chelsea started the game fairly well until the 16th minute when their in-form attacker Mount suffered an ankle injury which forced a change for manager Frank Lampard. Pedro Rodriguez was brought on as the replacement.
Chelsea dominated the game for most parts of the first half and the second half until Valencia's Rodrigo broke the deadlock in the 74th minute from a Daniel Parejo free-kick.
The game intensified and was turned back in the home team's favour when VAR (Video Assistant Referee) spotted a hand-ball in the Valencia penalty box and handed Chelsea a penalty.
Unfortunately, Ross Barkley hit the cross-bar and missed the penalty, and that was it. Valencia left England with 3 points last night after coming with the hope of at least getting a point out of the game.
Here are the top 5 talking points from the game, and the respective tactical analysis.
#5 Poor finishing and passes in the final third
Though Chelsea lost, it was not a very bad game for them considering the fact that the team created a lot of chances every now and then to get the required goals. But, it's the result that matters, and the Blues' failure to finish any of their attacks fruitfully culminated in them not even securing a point from the tournament opener.
Valencia keeper Jasper Cillessen was in great form last night and made some crucial saves. Also, the Valencia defence who were handicapped to respond to the constant Chelsea attacking threat maintained a disciplined attitude throughout the game.
The Londoners created almost more than 10 goal-scoring chances but failed to convert any, and in fact, only 6 out of the 10 were on target, while the others were blocked. There were times when Willian was clear and couldn't finish, whereas the other times Willian had options to pass the final ball to, just for the Brazilian to squander the opportunity.
Lampard might have to do something about this if he has to beat Liverpool on Sunday.
#4 Too many tactical fouls
Chelsea made 24 fouls in last night's game which is an incredible statistic for a team which has been known to sit back and let the opponent give up possession for them to counter.
Most of the fouls were purely tactical, which resulted in many Chelsea players getting penalised. But most importantly, one of those fouls led to the goal which won Valencia the match.
Mateo Kovacic's foul on Jose Gaya led to Valencia winning a free-kick in the centre of the field. Skipper Daniel Parejo lofted the ball around the near post which was scored by Rodrigo.
The discipline on the pitch with regards to fouls needs to be taken under scrutiny by the backroom staff at the Stamford Bridge.
#3 Poor set-piece defending
Chelsea have been shambolic in defending set-pieces since the beginning of this season in the domestic league and that continued last night in the Champions League. Even if Chelsea might not have conceded most of their goals from set-pieces, the team surely has looked shaky in such situations.
The reason might be Chelsea's young and inexperienced defence which is still to settle in the first team as Lampard is far from finalising his best back-four.
Even defending corners has been a task for the Blues as there is no midfielder or attacker in the squad who is brilliant in aerial situations when Olivier Giroud is not involved. This is in addition to the inexperienced back-line who have good but not great.
The Chelsea fans can only expect their team's defensive woes to lessen once Antonio Rudiger is totally fit to play 90 minutes every weekend.
#2 Lampard's substitutions
Frank Lampard's substitutions last night were very questionable. Christian Pulisic was brought in as a potential Eden Hazard replacement, thanks to his exploits for Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga. But the £64 million man has been getting very less game-time under Lampard.
Last night when Mason Mount was forced off the field due to injury, it was an obvious choice to bring Pulisic on, who has a similar style of play and is probably more clinical. But Lampard brought on Pedro, while Pulisic warmed the bench for the entire 90 minutes.
Another poor substitution was bringing on Olivier Giroud for Kurt Zouma in the 73rd minute. A minute later after this change, Chelsea conceded their only goal of the game, and this reflected what quality the team lost after Zouma's departure.
Lampard needs to be better as far as his substitutions are involved since this is where the managers make their money as decisions like these which can potentially change games.
#1 No designated penalty-taker
Last season, Eden Hazard, Jorginho and Willian took the penalties for the team, depending on the situation and subject to who was present on the pitch. But with Hazard gone and Willian not in the starting eleven very regularly, the team has got a sudden dearth of fixed penalty takers, and it looks like Jorginho might be their best option.
Ross Barkley stepped up to take the penalty last night despite interest from Willian and Jorginho and ended up missing the penalty. This proved to be the match's biggest talking moment as Chelsea lost their opening game as a result of this incident.
It is high time Lampard and his coaching team set some rigid team roles and responsibilities which cannot be breached under any circumstances, apart from some exceptional situations.
Chelsea host table-toppers Liverpool on Sunday in the Premier League as they will be looking to avenge their loss in the UEFA Super Cup a few weeks ago.
