Chelsea fell to a humiliating Premier League loss on Sunday as they were beaten 3-0 by Leeds United at Elland Road.
It was a sombre day at the office for the Blues, as strikes from United States forward Brenden Aaronson, Rodrigo and Jack Harrison put Thomas Tuchel’s men to the sword in what proved to be a thoroughly deserved victory for Jesse Marsch’s Leeds side.
The result leaves Chelsea in the bottom half of the table with just one win from three games and plenty of questions to be answered ahead of their return to Stamford Bridge to host Leicester City next weekend.
– Stream ESPN FC Daily on ESPN+ (U.S. only)
– Don’t have ESPN? Get instant access
Positives
For spells of this encounter, especially in the first half-hour, we saw Chelsea playing Leeds at their own game with sustained periods of pressure and a really high press, which many will wonder why they couldn’t maintain. They gradually turned it into their own kind of fixture by slowing down the tempo and stringing together some good passages of play on the deck that we should’ve seen more of.
Negatives
The visitors panicked under direct pressure from beginning to end, and you have to wonder whether they were in the right frame of mind to match the intensity on display from the hosts. Anytime the ball was in the air they struggled, and set pieces were a notable problem with Leeds finding it far too easy to overrun them in the middle of the park.
Manager rating (out of 10; 10 = best)
5 — Thomas Tuchel went from being as animated as ever to being as quiet as a mouse following last week’s antics. The attacking formation he started with showed promise as well as his starting XI selections, but it seems like the German needs to start drilling some more physicality in training based on this performance. In addition, you could argue he should have made his changes much sooner.
