Wow!
What a bizarre game!
United arrived for a 'behind closed doors friendly' to find about 200 Chelsea fans and 6 United supporters.
The teams lined up as in the original post and Chelsea murdered us in the first half. They hit the post in the first few minutes, consistently put us under pressure throughout. We got completely overrun in midfield during the opening stages as we played Gray, on the right wing, Cleverley on the left and Gibson in the middle of a five man central unit.
Danny Welbeck made a welcome return to action playing alone up front.
However after 12 minutes he suffered a knock to the head and after a couple of minutes confusion was replaced by Macheda.
Chelsea continued to play the better football with both Rafael and Fabio getting caught out of position on numerous occasions. A natural tendency to attack, a lack of communication to their team mates to cover and then a lack of urgency to get back......caused numerous problems for our defence. As the first half wore on, Fabio, who had already shown a complete lack of defensive awareness on at least three occasions, failed to clear a Gray header out of defence and as the ball was played back in Chelsea took the lead.
It was a well deserved opener as we looked to have no ideas. Then on the stoke of half time, Chelsea scored a second with a powerful header at the far post from the right wing exposing Fabio once again.
Half-time 0-2.
The second half started much more evenly, and a switch was made moving Gray to right back and pushing Rafael forward. Macheda had a couple of half chances but it was fairly even for the first 20 minutes or so. Then United started to get a grip and created numeropus chances. Macheda missed a handful of opportunities to score and Cleverley wasted a one-on-one with the keeper as United started to pile on the pressure. On 74 minutes Eikrem replaced Hewson and Stewart replaced Rafael, and three minutes later, Fabio hit a great strike from outside the box that beat the keeper no end and gave United a deserved response.
United were now on top and started to dictate play. Gibson who had been the most disappointing player on the pitch now started to play and spread some balls about. Fabio made a couple of good covering tackles as United pushed forward for an equaliser. Then with seconds remaining, and the game already deep into injury time, Cleverley was fouled just on the edge of the box. It looked outside to me......but the referee pointed to the spot and Gibson cooly beat the Chelsea keeper.
Seconds later the final whistle blew and United had scraped a point.
In all honesty we did not deserve anything out of this game as we only really played for twenty-five minutes.
Gibson was out of touch and for a player of his experience should have imposed his authority on the game.
Eckersley and Chester were solid but exposed by the fullbacks.
Rafael and Fabio particularly went missing defensively on numerous occasions. Going forward they are a joy to watch. Fast, direct, skilful, but they showed limited ability to defend at set pieces and were often out of position. Once both of them were playing centre-forward at the same time as Chelsea broke away.
Our midfield failed to click with Hewson also out of form.
Welbeck hardly got a touch.....while Macheda must learn to look up and pass the ball. He could have scored 3 goals at least but only tested the keeper once.
Overall a very poor team performance.
As a side note, Chelsea's Academy is clearly the most impressive I have ever seen!
