Sheffield United 1 Chelsea 2: Moments missed and tactical observations

Going back through the win over United on Sunday and picking apart moments and observations

Chelsea beat Sheffield United 2-1 on Sunday after a match-winning penalty from Jorginho sealed the points.

The main takeaway from the game was that it was another important three points, and it moved Chelsea back into 5th place in the league, just one point behind Liverpool in 4th spot, and only six points off second placed Manchester United having played the same amount of games.

It wasn’t really vintage Chelsea, and once again they ended up holding on a little bit at the end for all three points, which isn’t exactly ideal.

But they did the job and got over the line, that is all that matters at this stage, and the football on display was largely pretty good, all bar the final third once again.

Alan Shearer spoke after the match and claimed that for Chelsea to be title challengers again, they will need to add another centre forward, and I’m inclined to agree.

This isn’t because Timo Werner is failing, or is not good enough. This isn’t because Tammy Abraham isn’t good enough. But I just feel they need something else up top, a natural and emphatic powerful centre forward who will help share the burden with Werner or Abraham.

Erling Haaland of course would be the absolute ideal player, and we know there are reports that Chelsea will make a move to sign him in the summer, so the club clearly know they might need something else up top.

But it can’t solely be blamed on strikers. One thing I noticed yesterday was Chelsea’s lack of boldness on the ball. Quite often when there was a pass on, they didn’t take the risk and went backwards or made a safer pass just to keep the ball.

One thing we need to see moving forward is players taking more risks in attacking areas, whether it is taking on a shot on sight, making that through pass to a runner, or trying to take your man on. I think if we play with less fear we will get more opportunities to score and more chances will open up, as it did for Mason Mount’s goal below.

As you can see Ben Chilwell instead of going back with a safe pass and keeping the ball, he risks a pass to Werner that had to be inch perfect, which lead to a goal.

Chelsea need to do more of this and we can get more goals

Some things you may have missed….

This superb flick over the opposition player from Mason Mount was just pure sublime.

And how awesome is this? Captain Cesar Azpilicueta right behind the Referee literally cheerleading him on to give Chelsea a penalty, the one that got them the winning goal!

I love this kind of thing, pure passion!

Antonio Rudiger put United back into the game with his own goal, just look at the reaction from the players here - a real head in hands moment from Mateo Kovacic and Chilwell.

Rudiger made up for his daft own goal though, by making a number of good blocks and tackles late on, especially this one.

Things could have been a lot different otherwise.

And finally, there was a return to the hop, skip and a jump for Jorginho who beautifully converted his penalty to win the match.

Check out the reaction from Kovacic as well, brilliant stuff!