Three things we learned from Chelsea defeat as Blues in genuine danger of unthinkable collapse | OneFootball

Liam Delap’s performance in the absence of the injured Joao Pedro adds to a disappointing night for Chelsea

Qualifying for the Champions League football is becoming an ever-more remote unlikelihood for off-form Chelsea after defeat to Manchester United left them six and a half hours with a Premier League goal, dating back to March 4.

The result will pile the pressure on Chelsea head coach Liam Rosenior, whose side have now lost six of their last seven games.

Champions League hopes suffer latest hammer blow

Chelsea’s season is unravelling badly, and the defeat to United was merely a continuation of worrying trends visible on the pitch in the last month.

Winning 4-1 at Aston Villa in early March was a huge boost to their hopes of qualifying for the Champions League, but their dismal league form since puts them in genuine danger of missing out on European football altogether — something which would have been an unthinkable magnitude of collapse at the time.

Brentford and Bournemouth are now level with sixth-place Chelsea, who have lost all of their last four Premier League matches of a campaign that is now petering out badly.

Chelsea are now ten points behind Manchester United in the Premier League table

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Could there be even graver consequences to come for Rosenior? Well that remains to be seen in the days to come, but the result from Tuesday’s match against his former club Brighton is now all the more crucial.

Barren spell extended

For the first time since February–March 1998, Chelsea have lost four games in a row in the league without scoring a single goal along the way.

The last time they went five league games losing and without scoring was in November 1912, seven months after the Titanic sank. Things right now are extremely bleak in their corner of west London.

All the more stark given a centre-back crisis for United left Michael Carrick’s side having to line up with Ayden Heaven and Noussair Mazraoui in central defence. And still they claimed a clean-sheet from the toothless Blues.

Chelsea have now failed to score in four successive Premier League matches

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They did, at least, have chances. Enzo Fernandez showed good strength to turn Mazraoui and Casemiro but then curled just wide. Estevao — who went off injured to make matters worse on a miserable night — and Delap and even Wesley Fofana all hit the woodwork.

Delap and Fofana’s chances were identical: Pedro Neto’s crosses from the right met in the air but the underside of the crossbar keeping both players’ headers out. Cole Palmer, anonymous for so much of the game, fashioned a volley out of a Malo Gusto delivery, but that stayed out too.

For Chelsea, everything did. They created plenty — and still should have created more.

Delap fails to make his mark

Those Chelsea fans not preoccupied with the 500-strong protest against the club’s ownership that coincided with the team news arriving will have gasped in unison when they saw Joao Pedro was not starting and not on the bench either.

It emerged that the Brazilian has suffered a thigh injury, and while it is understood that Chelsea hope he can be back in time to face his former team Brighton on Tuesday, it was still a major blow for such a big game and a hurdle for Rosenior to overcome.

In came Delap for his first Premier League start since January’s 3-2 win over West Ham. Asked how his team would have to adapt, Rosenior replied: “Not that much” before the game.

Liam Delap had a goal ruled out and hit the crossbar as Chelsea lost to Manchester United

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Within 12 seconds, Delap had been flagged offside, and though he battled hard and was a physical presence, he was not able to offer a telling contribution and press his case.

He did, however, come close. He had the ball in the net in the first half from Cole Palmer’s lay-off, only for the goal to be chalked off because Palmer had been offside in the build-up.

He was then even closer to levelling the game after the interval when he rose highest and headed at goal but watched in anguish as the ball struck the crossbar, bounced down and away. It was one of those evenings for Chelsea.