The three stars who can save Chelsea season and redefine their futures | OneFootball

Blues need more from key attacking trio to avoid season ending in a whimper

Also rare was a clean-sheet against Premier League opposition — the first time Chelsea had earned one since January 17 against Brentford.

And Pedro Neto assisting Fernandez for the game’s only goal was an uncommon sight, too. The Portuguese winger began the season in fairly prolific fashion but, just as Chelsea themselves, has faded as a disappointing campaign has worn on.

He is not alone there. Chelsea’s goalscoring troubles became historically dire during the final weeks of Rosenior’s short reign, and the individual struggles of Neto, Alejandro Garnacho and the once-talismanic Cole Palmer were one of a number of contributing factors.

Chelsea are all but out of contention to qualify for the Champions League yet European football of some sort is still attainable — and the added carrot of an FA Cup trophy to battle for in next month’s final leaves interim him coach Calum McFarlane and his young and much-criticised squad with plenty to fight for in the final weeks of the campaign.

Cole Palmer and Alejandro Garnacho

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Turning a poor season around is impossible now, but ending strongly and potentially with silverware is still possible. It requires Palmer, Neto and Garnacho to step up. All three are capable attacking players who have fallen on hard times for a variety of reasons.

Palmer was once far and away Chelsea’s finest player, one of the best in the division and across the continent, but now looks half the player before due to a string of injuries. Previously unthinkable, he is now in real danger of missing out on England’s World Cup squad unless his performances improve.

For whatever reason, Garnacho has become accustomed to receiving rather impassioned boos from opposition fans up and down the country, which has affected the confidence of a winger playing within himself. Manchester United will look on the £40million they recouped for the 21-year-old last summer from Chelsea as shrewd business. He is yet to make a success of his move to Stamford Bridge, and has an uncertain future.

And while Neto, at his best, is the most productive and most decisive of Chelsea’s wingers, he has been a far cry from that lately. He has not scored in 13 games since his February hat-trick at Hull. He and Palmer have often not hidden their exasperation whenever one has opted not to feed the other during an attack.

Despite suggestions from England head coach Thomas Tuchel that Palmer is showing signs of his 2024 form, the forward does not take on players nearly as much as he used to. Brought on as a substitute at Wembley on Sunday, he was more useful for blocking last-gasp crosses into the box than bringing vim and verve to the Chelsea attack.

End product in the final third has consisted of poorly weighted passes and ballooned shots on goal, and it is Neto, Garnacho and Palmer more so than Fernandez or Joao Pedro who have looked most out of ideas and short on confidence. Neto’s sumptuous cross for Fernandez to head past Leeds was an anomaly that McFarlane will hope is a sign the page will now turn.

When McFarlane admitted the goal threat of a certain Argentine is something Chelsea have come to “rely on”, you could not help but feel the remark implied others need to level up in the run-in, that the burden in the final third must be better shared from here on in.