“The big turning point…” – Joao Pedro is in huge trouble at Chelsea after Sunday change | OneFootball

Micah Richards was on his podcast today talking about the Chelsea draw with Man City. He made a very interesting point about how the Blues had worked their way into the game against a previously dominant City side.

Richards says Delap introduction changed the game

Liam Delap enters for Joao Pedro. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)

“I think the big turning point of the game was Liam Delap,” the pundit and former Man City player said.

“I thought his runs in behind, especially seeing it high up at the stadium, it just pushed City a little bit back and then City didn’t really know what to do with that. That allowed Cole Palmer to play like I mentioned and they got a little bit of confidence.”

There is no doubt that that switch helped Chelsea, and while that was good for the result, it’s even more bad news for Joao Pedro. The Brazilian contributed absolutely nothing once again, and Delap simply running around a bit for half an hour gave the team more than the Brazilian had all game.

If a guy who has scored 0 Premier League goals by January is preferable up top to you… you’re in trouble.

JP apparently works best as a number ten – well guess what, we’ve already got Cole Palmer and Enzo Fernandez (and a couple of others) who are better in that role. So if he continues to play this poorly as a striker, it’s hard to see where his future is.

In other news…

Rosenior’s big challenge will be getting Cole Palmer back to his best, as was pointed out by Matt Law in his piece for the Daily Telegraph today.

Andy Brassell was on TalkSport earlier today pointing out that Chelsea fans comparing the incoming Liam Rosenior to Jose Mourinho or Antonio Conte should get real about the new aims of the club.