“Maybe…” – Chelsea defender makes big denial about how Blues coped with Everton’s pressing | OneFootball

Chelsea’s inability to cope with Everton’s press was not key to their downfall – at least according to Jorrel Hato.

DOWNLOAD THE OFFICIAL CHELSEA NEWS APP FOR ALL THE LATEST UPDATES – STRAIGHT TO YOUR PHONE! ON THE APP STORE

Chelsea were played off the park by Everton on Saturday night. The home team attacked more efficiently, defended more solidly, and played with more co-ordination and energy than we did.

Jorrel Hato was asked post-game whether it was the intense pressing from the home team that had put Chelsea off, but didn’t agree with that take.

Hato denied that it was the Everton pressing that had shut his team down:

“Maybe in the beginning, the first 15 minutes, they were pressing well,” the defender said in quotes on the club’s official website.

“But after that we had control of the game, we created chances and they were spending most of the time in the game very deep in their own half. But it was hard, it was difficult to score, and it was just not enough.”

Chelsea fail to deal with any part of Everton’s game

Ironically, the first 15 minutes were Chelsea’s best in the whole game. Hato is right that his team weren’t as put off by the pressing after that, but that’s really just because Everton didn’t have to press as much – they could simply sit deeper and let us pass aimlessly around in front of them.

In other news…

Chelsea’s need for a top central defender was brutally exposed in that game, and a Serie A player is being strongly linked as potentially that man.

Paul Merson has been writing about Chelsea’s current predicament, and has called one decision “madness”.`

If you enjoy Chelsea News coverage and want to see more of it, add us as a preferred source on Google to make us a favourite and see more of our content.

Check out the latest edition of Simon Phillips’ SPTC podcast here: