Chelsea's £220m failure overshadows exactly what Pochettino was looking for

20 August 2023 , 19:08

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Moises Caicedo, Chelsea's £115m signing from Brighton, came off the bench from his debut and conceded a late penalty in defeat to West Ham.

So this is what almost quarter of a billion pounds on two midfielders gets you: a saved penalty kick at 1-1 and another conceded to eventually lose 3-1.

Forgive the glib summation but it was hard not to detect the sense of schadenfreude from anyone not a Chelsea fan as Moises Caicedo, the £115m signing sprung from the bench to predictable shouts of “whooo?” by the West Ham supporters, clumsily conceded a 95th-minute spot kick to ensure debut defeat.

A source of mockery is part of the deal when you spend more than £900m on new players in three transfer windows and still look very much a work in progress.

But in reality, despite the ending and result, Chelsea played enough good football here for their supporters to maintain a sense of optimism. Questions remain - over which system best suits the personnel and which personnel suits Mauricio Pochettino’s preferred system - but these are early days and improvements feel inevitable.

There was a prolonged spell late in the first half where it felt like they were gelling before our eyes. Yes, by the end they looked ragged, uncertain and miles off the level required to be considered a Premier League challenger. But is anyone expecting them to be a challenger right away in spite of the spending?

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In the final minutes, with a man advantage but no head of steam to snatch an equaliser, Levi Colwill was shifted out to left back to facilitate a change of formation and the line was co-led by Mason Burstow, a signing from Charlton Athletic brought on for his debut.

But mitigating factors exist. Injuries will prevent Pochettino from having a full deck of cards for months to come and the final 10 days of another stunning transfer window should see some departures and could see more arrivals. A proven goalscorer would go a long way.

“I don’t believe it was the mentality,” Pochettino said at full time. “Today the result doesn’t reflect the performance but you need to accept these situations happen.”

Caicedo brought down Emerson Palmieri in the box (Matt Impey/REX/Shutterstock)

Let’s focus on the positives for a moment because there were a few to take.

Carney Chukwuemeka’s equaliser was a beauty, cutting in from the left after gathering Kurt Zouma’s loose clearance before whipping the ball past Alphonse Areola. However Chukwuemeka was stretchered off late in the first half with a leg injury and departed the stadium on crutches.

Enzo Fernandez, perhaps the weight of being a record signing lifted from his shoulders, produced a number of beautiful passes through the lines and, being fair, his penalty kick was kept out by a fine Areola stop.

Alphonse Areola of West Ham United saves a penalty from Enzo Fernandez of Chelsea.

In particular there were a couple of clipped balls over the top from the £105m man towards Raheem Sterling, who appears rejuvenated having epitomised the club’s shocker last season, that were delightful on the eye and sure to punish opponents as the season progresses.

Caicedo was only fit to play 30 minutes, Pochettino said, but penalty concession aside the head coach was impressed. “He did well, very positive things,” the head coach said. “He made a positive impact.”

The numbers suggested otherwise and he gave away possession carelessly but the Ecuador international will settle in and Romeo Lavia’s introduction is still to come. Then again, where does that leave Conor Gallagher, who started in the holding role here against a team that was interested in signing him before the recent transfers? It is Pochettino’s job to settle on the right formula and somehow keep so many egos in check. And that will be no easy task.

Still, West Ham boss David Moyes’ appraisal was a fairer summary of the entire game and a sense of what is to come beyond the script-writers’ dream of their most expensive acquisitions being the fall guys.

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“Chelsea were really good today, very good,” Moyes said. “So for us to come away with a positive result today was enormous. They were the better team by a long way for long parts of the game.”

Alan Smith