Chelsea 0-1 Valencia: Barkley misses late penalty as Blues fall flat at Stamford Bridge
There were bound to be stern words in the Stamford Bridge home dressing room tonight after Ross Barkley took it upon himself to take a late penalty, only to waste a gilt-edged chance to equalise in a disappointing defeat against Valencia.
The England midfielder, fresh off the bench, waved away regular – and reliable – takers Jorginho and Willian, much to the dismay of teammates, before smashing it over the crossbar.
It was a distratous end to a lacklustre night for Frank Lampard in his first taste of the Champions League as a manager.
There will also be further debate over VAR and the current handball laws, with Chelsea’s spot-kick a contentious one, requiring referee Cuneyt Cakir to visit the touchline and watch a replay showing the ball striking Daniel Wass’ arm.
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Under the new laws and how they are interpreted, particularly in Europe, it was a penalty, despite it clearly being completely unintentional.
Had Chelsea equalised it would have almost been unfair on the visitors, with the Blues falling flat at Stamford Bridge.
Missing Mount
Mason Mount was forced off with an injury just 15 minutes into his Champions League debut and Chelsea’s attack looked stifled thereafter.
His injury came from a poor tackle by former Arsenal player Francis Coquelin, who took just nine minutes to pick up his obligatory booking on his return to London. It was a late challenge that caught Mount on the ankle and he was perhaps lucky not to see red.
The loss of one of the stars so far under Lampard’s regime knocked some of the impetus out of Chelsea’s attack and they often resorted to crossing into Tammy Abraham.
But another former Arsenal player, Gabriel, and his fellow centre-back Ezequiel Garay had an answer for just about everything.
Willian working alone
The only glimmer of creativity came from Willian. After a week in which the Brazilian declared his love for the club and insisted he wanted to stay beyond the end of this year, he did the rest of his talking on the pitch.
Playing on the right of Abraham and regularly drifting into a No10 role, the Brazilian was Chelsea’s main threat and he could have scored twice before the break.
First he chested down a lovely lofted through-ball from Mateo Kovacic, but couldn’t get his shot on target as it looped over.
Five minutes later he had another shot on goal, but Jasper Cillessen was equal to it. He was subdued in a much quieter second-half and Valencia held on to a well-deserved clean sheet.
Rehearsed set-pieces
The Valencia players were unwilling to play ball for their new head coach Albert Celades during his first two press conferences, failing to turn up in protest at the sacking of his predecessor Marcelino.
But it was a different story on the pitch as they put in a disciplined defensive performance to keep Chelsea out, before utilising a set-piece play straight off the training ground to score.
The Spanish side defended deep with two banks of four and tried to catch Chelsea on the counter-attack, although were unable to trouble them for large parts of the game.
Their most dangerous moments came from rehearsed set-pieces and in the 74th minute Rodrigo latched on to a deft free-kick at the near post to catch the Blues off guard and scuff a volley past Arrizabalaga for the game’s decisive goal.
Tomori’s time
If previous matches had been all about what Abraham can do, this one highlighted the potential of another of Lampard’s prodigies, Fikayo Tomori.
The 21-year-old has fit seamlessly into the Chelsea backline and helped his side to defend resolutely for the majority of the match.
He kept former Real Madrid forward Rodrigo quiet until the Spaniard’s goal, putting in a last ditch slide tackle which earned rapturous applause from the Chelsea faithful.
He also demonstrated his attacking talents, bursting into the box and delivering a ball across the face of goal.
Ultimately Tomori’s display proved to be a small positive on a disappointing evening for Lampard and his side.