Three things we learned from Chelsea loss as nightmare continues | OneFootball

More individual errors add to a disappointing evening for Chelsea against Everton

A sunny evening on the Mersey delivered nothing but doom and gloom for Chelsea.

Instead, they lost while striking a blank at the other end for the third straight match as a bluntness in the final third compounded dreadful individual errors to invite further criticism of their weak mentality and their head coach’s methods.

Goalkeeping nightmare continues

Everton had failed to score in 12 of their past 19 Premier League games against Chelsea but were in luck — Robert Sanchez and Filip Jorgensen have been in a rut of late, offering up freebies with unforced errors.

On this occasion, two howlers from Sanchez — one punished, one not. First a heavy first touch from a Jorrel Hato pass-back saw Sanchez tackled by Everton striker Beto. An open goal so nearly presented itself to the Guinea-Bissau international, the goalkeeper fortunate Beto was slightly sluggish, allowing him to tackle him back and Chelsea to clear.

This was a sign of things to come though, a foreshadowing of further Chelsea errors.

Robert Sanchez was unconvincing once again for Chelsea

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Already beaten by Beto’s first-half dink, Sanchez allowed a saveable strike by the forward squirm through his body. By the time the Spaniard realised what had happened, it was too late.

His Robert Green-esque lunge to claw the ball off the line was in vain. It was already across. Yet another goalkeeping muck-up had seen Chelsea’s deficit double.

Through Iliman Ndiaye’s marvellous third, it would get even worse for Chelsea. They clearly need to upgrade in goal in the summer. That fact keeps getting clearer.

Individual errors still cursing Chelsea

Rosenior said this week that he believes Chelsea’s defeats and dropped points under his watch have been more down to “moments” than “tactics”, but at what point do they become inextricably linked?

His first month or so in the job saw Rosenior regularly mention his target of helping Chelsea produce a “perfect 90 minutes”. The last few weeks have felt a step back, though, and perfection has felt further out of reach than ever. Individual unforced errors have been common and costly.

At the Hill Dickinson Stadium, the Blues produced their worst 20 minutes of the season in which they did not concede — that the opening 20 minutes of the match — and it set the tone on a disastrous evening.

Wesley Fofana struggled to contain Beto all evening

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Wesley Fofana was brought back into the team having been dropped against Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday following errors in that Champions League first leg and then against Newcastle.

His return brought further errors as he gave the ball away twice and let Beto go without following him for the first goal.

Then came substitute Andrey Santos’s lax pass vaguely towards two or three teammates but which Idrissa Gana Gueye snuck in and nabbed, instigating the counter from which another error, Sanchez’s howler, allowed Everton to double their lead. Chelsea were punished again.

Tactical switch midgame

Down by a goal and with their performance not showing any signs of troubleshooting itself, Rosenior made an interesting change at half-time, hooking right-back Malo Gusto and throwing Alejandro Garnacho on.

This saw Moises Caicedo play at right-back for the first time under the Englishman. He had not fulfilled that role since the days of Enzo Maresca.

But Caicedo inverted into midfield, joining Romeo Lavia — replaced later by Santos — and Enzo Fernandez, who had been brought back into the No8 role to allow Cole Palmer into No10 between Pedro Neto one side and Garnacho the other.

Familar role: Moises Caicedo

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For a brief moment the sense was that this had given Chelsea a greater level of balance, that Rosenior's change might have steadied the ship.

Yet Garnacho was ineffective in the final third, Fernandez denied three times by Jordan Pickford, and soon enough it was 2-0, and then three.

The Hill Dickinson Stadium was boisterous with Everton chants but also calls of “sacked in the morning”, directed at Rosenior. While that appears premature, criticism of the job he and his players are doing right now is evidently not.