Chelsea's rousing final flourish sees off Watford but performance raises as many questions as it answers
Chelsea 4 Watford 2: Antonio Conte's side are a long way from their best but showed grit and determination to fight back and beat Watford 4-2 at Stamford Bridge
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Antonio Conte shuffled the pack and perhaps even saved his job. A relentlessly open game ended with a rousing final flourish, Chelsea pulling clear late on with two goals from substitute Michy Batshuayi, having looked buried after an hour.
And while Chelsea showed the resolve of champions, and Conte his tinker’s touch, it was really a performance that raised as many questions as it answered. After cancelling out Pedro’s early goal on the stroke of half-time, Watford tore into Chelsea after the break, trampling over their midfield and creating enough chances to put the match out of sight.
“A really unfair result,” Watford manager Marco Silva lamented afterwards. “It didn't reflect the match. Our team came here and controlled most of the match.” Yet Watford were made to rue the two glaring misses by Richarlison at 2-1 up that, if converted, might have snapped Chelsea’s resistance once and for all.
The introduction of Batshuayi for the last 30 minutes, combined with a couple of nifty shifts in personnel, turned the game back Chelsea’s way. The outstanding Pedro and another substitute in Willian were able to turn their lasers on the Watford defence, while Cesar Azpilicueta was switched from the right flank to the left, from where he drifted in to head in the decisive goal, putting Chelsea 3-2 up.
Batshuayi may well have put the burners on his Chelsea career, too. This sparkling cameo was a reminder that he is still capable of being the £33 million striker that Chelsea signed last summer, as long as he is used correctly. Batshuayi with his back to goal is no good to anyone except the opposition. But given the licence to run at defences and spring the offside trap, he is a real force. He can expect another run-out in the League Cup against Everton in midweek.
And yet the concerns over Chelsea’s defensive frailties will simply not go away. Conte may ultimately have won the day, but this is not the sort of football with which he made his name; probably even not the sort of football he wants to be playing. The combination of Cesc Fabregas and Tiemoue Bakayoko in midfield is currently conceding a goal every 38 minutes, and with key players out, a defeat here might have sent Chelsea - and by extension Conte’s Chelsea career - into a terminal spiral.
Afterwards, Conte claimed to be relaxed about his position. “I must be honest, I feel a lot of pressure,” he said. “But not this type of pressure about whether the club will sack me. I trust in my work. When I go to my house, I am happy because I am putting in 150 per cent for my club. Honestly, I will never be worried for this. Never.”
Silva’s Watford, meanwhile, left Stamford Bridge empty-handed but with their reputations enhanced. They simply ran out of puff in the final 20 minutes, but by that stage their excellent collective pressing and intelligent passing moves had shown that they are well worth their place in the Premier League’s top six.
Silva also had a legitimate grumble about the corner from which Chelsea opened the scoring, arguing - correctly, as it turned out - that the ball had come last off Eden Hazard. But there was no arguing with Pedro’s finish, a brilliant curling shot that clattered in off the post from 25 yards.
For an hour, Pedro was having one of those games when he is less a component of a team and more a freak weather occurrence. There were stepovers, cheeky nutmegs, ambitious dribbles out of his own half. He shot from distance again and again. He raged at team-mates for playing the wrong pass, or playing the pass too slow, or occasionally simply just not being as good as Pedro. He made scything tackles that had no real function except to imprint his presence on the game like a tattoo.
Unfortunately, his team-mates were not quite on his level. Conte spread his arms, urging more width, more speed, more effort, more strength, more, more, more of everything. But Chelsea still struggled to get a grip on the game. And in the 120th of 120 seconds of injury time at the end of the first-half, Watford hoisted in a long throw from the right. David Luiz’s header hit Bakayoko, and Abdoulaye Doucoure lashed the ball past Thibaut Courtois from a tight angle.
What followed was nothing more, and nothing less, than a Chelsea meltdown. Time and again, Watford played the ball through Chelsea’s midfield, winning it high, passing it quick. Richarlison missed an open goal and a free header either side of setting up Roberto Pereyra’s breakaway goal. The second half was not 10 minutes old and Chelsea should really have been out of the game.
In his desperation, Conte brought on Batshuayi, but still Watford were tearing them up down the flanks, to the extent that Pedro was sprinting towards his own goal to fill the vacant left-back position. Marcos Alonso made way for Willian soon after that, Pedro dropping to right-wing-back, and the effect was instant. With 19 minutes remaining, Pedro found some space, whipped in a cross, and Batshuayi’s diagonal run to the near post was timed to perfection, his glancing header exquisite.
In the 87th minute, Chelsea completed their escape. Willian ghosted too easily around Ben Watson and crossed from the right. Christian Kabasele - who had earlier missed two free headers - flicked the ball just out of the reach of Batshuayi, but arriving at the back post was Azpilicueta. Azpilicueta only needed to get his header on target, and did. Conte spread his arms and collapsed into the crowd in relief.
There was still time for a lick of paint on the scoreline. In the final minute of injury time, Miguel Britos tried to dink the ball out of defence: a bold move, even if it were not the final minute of injury time and your name is not Miguel Britos. Bakayoko intercepted, and a few seconds later the ball was in the back of the Watford net courtesy of Batshuayi.
“That’s why we’re champions,” the home crowd sang in the final minutes. Well, fair enough. But unless Chelsea buck up their ideas, they may not be for much longer.
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