When Thomas Tuchel came to rescue Chelsea from Frank Lampard in January 2021, he won the Champions League. In his first full season as Blues coach, he fell out of the Premier League title race by the end of 2021, and after three rounds of the new season, his team looks even worse. After narrowly beating Everton 1-0 and somehow unlucky drawing with Spurs the following week, the Blues were soundly beaten in Yorkshire after 20 years: Leeds – Chelsea 3-060 – Today was Thomas Tuchel’s 60th Premier League match; Chelsea conceded just 17 goals in the first 30 of these, but have shipped exactly twice as many in the last 30 (34). Concern. pic.twitter.com/aKLQCHRwbK— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) August 21, 2022 Not taking anything away from Leeds and their excellent, aggressive approach which totally worked in the end, it was Chelsea who could have won the game, and it was Chelsea who eventually lost the game due to their mistakes. After failing to score from a few good chances (the first one was within a minute of the start), they allowed a silly goal from a great keeper like Edouard Mendy, and the Senegalese will surely have a sleepless night over this. Chelsea’s attack was deconcentrated, the midfield, which consisted of Academy players Mount, Loftus – Cheek and Gallagher was not working and the defence allowed 5 goals in the last two matches. Not good enough.Chelsea could have turned the game completely after less than a minute into the game, but Raheem Sterling missed a huge chance. Former Manchester City forward eventually scored, only to be denied since he was in offside. Mount had another good chance in the 23rd minute, but Leeds keeper Meslier flicked the ball to the corner. Leeds were better in general, and since the Blues didn’t use their chances, the home team did. Edouard Mendy was needlessly playing with the ball in his own area and tried to dribble Aaronson, but failed and the forward used this massive blunder: 1-0 for Leeds. Just a few minutes later, it was 2-0. Harrison delivered from the free kick and Rodrigo raised above Reece James to head the ball past Mendy.Tuchel decided to change formation in the second half and shaped it as 4-2-2-2. Loftus-Cheek was now in central midfield with Gallagher moving out to the right in order to allow James to be more involved in the attack, but nothing worked. Pulisic and Ziyech came in the later stages of the match, but still delivered nothing. In fact, Leeds managed to score the third goal in the 69th minute, when Harrison got the ball in space and reacted quicker than Chelsea’s defence. To make things worse, Kalidou Koulibaly got the second yellow card and that was the end of any attempt to get back into the game. It looks like the Blues are already behind in the title race and Tuchel’s requests for more signings will be louder than ever.ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE – MATCHDAY 3SaturdayTottenham – Wolverhampton 1-0 (0-0)/Kane 64/Crystal Palace – Aston Villa 3-1 (1-1)/Zaha 7, 58, Mateta 71 – Watkins 5/Everton – Nott.Forest 1-1 (0-0)/Gray 88 – Johnson 81/Fulham – Brentford 3-2 (2-1)/Reid 1, Palhinha 20, Mitrovic 90 – Norgaard 44, Toney 71/Leicester – Southampton 1-2 (0-0)/Maddison 54 – Adams 68, 84/Bournemouth – Arsenal 0-3 (0-2)/Odegaard 5, 11, Saliba 54/Sunday Leeds – Chelsea 3-0 (2-0)/Aaronson 33, Rodrigo 37, Harrison 69/West Ham – Brighton 0-2 (0-1)/Mac Allister 20 pen, Trossard 66/18.30: (8.50) Newcastle (4.50) Man.City (1.40)Monday 22.00: (5.70) Man.Utd. (4.20) Liverpool (1.63)***odds are subject to change
