Chelsea entered the Club World Cup eager to follow up on a strong finish to the season which saw the London club clinch qualification for next season’s Champions League before beating Real Betis in the final of the Conference League. However, their match against Flamengo during the group stage’s second matchday showed that despite being the clear favourites to advance from Group D, it was never going to be “as simple as that”.
Chelsea succumbed to a 3-1 loss against Flamengo at Lincoln Financial Field. Although Pedro Neto opened the scoring for the Blues in the 13th minute, that would end up being as good as things would get for Chelsea. From that point forth, Flamengo took control of the match and were rather unlucky not to enter the half-time interval on level terms.
This would change after the break. Just seven minutes after replacing midfielder Giorgian De Arrascaeta, Bruno Henrique scored Flamengo’s equalizer to start what would be a frenetic next six minutes. Three minutes later, Henrique would set up Flamengo’s second goal scored by centre-back Danilo. To make matters worse for Chelsea, just three minutes after Flamengo’s second goal, Chelsea striker Nicolas Jackson received a red card after a severe foul on Flamengo full-back Ayrton Lucas. The Senegalese striker had barely spent any time on the field at the time as he had replaced Liam Delap slightly over four minutes before the incident.
In the 85th minute, Flamengo closed the door on Chelsea for good. Substitute Wallace Yan scored the Brazilian club’s winning goal to ensure a spot in the round of 16 and leave Chelsea needing to avoid defeat against Tunisian side Espérance Tunis to make it to the last 16. While theoretically that shouldn’t be too difficult, the fact that things have played out in this way spotlight several key issues for Chelsea.
In both matches so far, new signing Delap hasn’t looked impressive at all. Though it’s of course way too early to come to a conclusion, Chelsea’s new acquisition from Ipswich Town certainly has not appeared to live up to the £30 million price tag that he was signed for. What makes matters worse is the fact that Delap wears perhaps the most “cursed” jersey in world football - the Chelsea 9.
Over the past two decades or so, striker after striker (and even some non-strikers) have put on the Chelsea 9; every single one has ended up failing to fulfill the expectations. Considering the fact that this is a monumental step up for Delap - though he has played for Manchester City before, he hardly ever received any playing time while there - it’s certainly possible that he’ll end up adding his name to the infamous list.
It’s also notable that Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca chose to switch things up tactically, going with a 4-3-3 formation instead of the usual 4-2-3-1 and starting superstar attacking midfielder Cole Palmer at right wing instead of his usual preferred spot. This change didn’t help at all - Chelsea’s attacking unit, including Palmer, looked disjointed and out of sync throughout the whole match with the exception of Portuguese winger Neto. It’s clear that this was an example of “trying to fix something that didn’t need to be fixed”. Maresca needs to switch back to the usual 4-2-3-1 if Chelsea are to make a serious run at the Club World Cup title.
Of course, many will make the point about how Chelsea, like other European clubs, aren’t as acclimatized to the conditions as their South American counterparts as well as the fact that they’ve accumulated more fatigue as they are playing after a long season rather than in the mid-season like the South American clubs. While true, the gap between Chelsea and Flamengo should have been large enough that neither should have been a serious factor in what ought to have been a routine victory for Chelsea. In addition, with regard to acclimatization, by this point they ought to have become accustomed to the conditions - after all, this match was from the second matchday.
For what it’s worth, Chelsea, as mentioned, are very likely to advance to the last 16 as their final group stage opponent isn’t a particularly difficult one. However, based on what Chelsea showed against Flamengo, in this form even what should be an easy win isn’t as guaranteed as it perhaps should be.
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