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Chelsea's march to the Premier League title took another hit as Thomas Tuchel's side dropped points at home to Manchester United. The Blues drew 1-1 against the Red Devils on Sunday night despite dominating the game from the very start.
Michael Carrick stunned the footballing world when he benched Cristiano Ronaldo. He started with a front three of Marcus Rashford, Bruno Fernandes and Jadon Sancho. Tuchel responded with Timo Werner, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Hakim Ziyech, but the trio missed way too many chances.
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Speaking to the media after the game, Tuchel claimed he was happy with the performance. He said:
"It can happen in football, unfortunately it happened twice to us, it also happened against Burnley. I am absolutely happy with the performance. We dominated from the first minute, we were aggressive and never stopped attacking. Unfortunately we scored two goals, one for each side."
He added:
"We were very disciplined and sharp. I am happy with what I saw, it was a pleasure to coach on the sidelines. We can not guarantee results but if we play like this we can increase the chances for results."
On that note, here are 5 Chelsea players who underperformed today:
#5 - Jorginho
Jorginho had a blinder of a game in the first half. But after the break, he was a shadow of himself. The Ballon d'Or nominee seemed to have received bad news about the award ceremony tomorrow at half-time and he was unable to recover.
The Italian fumbled and lost control of the ball, being the last man, when Manchester United cleared a Chelsea corner. The error led to the opening goal. Jadon Sancho pounced on the loose ball and was through on goal, with Marcus Rashford alongside him. Sancho, however, went alone and slotted it past Edouard Mendy.
Jorginho did score via a penalty to pull Chelsea level. But the costly error that helped Manchester United gain confidence made him one of Chelsea's underperforming players of the game.
#4 - Ruben Loftus-Cheek
Replacing N'Golo Kante is not an easy job but Ruben Loftus-Cheek (RLC) stepped up and tried his best. RLC has been exceptional this season. But tonight he seemed off his game and that was one of the reasons Chelsea did not win today.
The midfielder was missing in action for a large part of the game as Nemanja Matic, Fred and Scott McTominay marked him well. RLC was also a bit lazy off the ball today and seemed to have second thoughts on making runs forward.
#3 - Callum Hudson-Odoi
Callum Hudson-Odoi's 250 game challenge by Thomas Tuchel had been going well, but he was nowhere near his best tonight. The winger missed a couple of chances to give Chelsea the lead. The first one was a 1v1 chance in the opening minutes.
Shooting boots were missing for CHO tonight or else it would have been a really good game for the youngster. The missed chances have cost Chelsea two points tonight. That is the sole reason he makes the underperformers list.
#2 - Hakim Ziyech
Going by just the stats today, Hakim Ziyech might well be Chelsea's man of the match. The Moroccan had a great game stat-wise, but it might be a different story for those who watched.
Ziyech was lucky to end the game without a booking today as he was clumsy in tackles. The former Ajax star made at least 3-4 fouls in the first half alone, but Anthony Taylor did not book him.
Chelsea need Ziyech to step up in such games, but he seems to be making some terrible decisions in the final third. However, that was the case for all forwards in blue tonight.
#1 - Timo Werner
Unfortunately, missed chances and Timo Werner go hand in hand. The German was easily Chelsea's worst player on the pitch today. Not only was he shooting wide, he was not making the right runs either.
The former RB Leipzig star was known to make exceptional runs into the box. He used to find the space between the defenders, but that was not the case today.
He was hardly a threat to the Manchester United defense. His lack of awareness around the box saw Reece James's crosses and passes into the dangerous areas wriggle away for goal kicks.
Special mention: Thomas Tuchel
Thomas Tuchel has been doing exceptionally well at Chelsea, but he made too many errors tonight. The biggest mistake was the timing of his substitutions, as they were given very little time to make any impact.
Mason Mount and Christian Pulisic came on in the 78th minute, while the changes should have been at least 15 minutes earlier. The late substitution of Romelu Lukaku coming on for Timo Werner could be excused because of the Belgian's fitness. The other two were delayed, which did not help Chelsea get the desired result.
