Chelsea’s frailties coming to fore

AP:

It took one dreadful 90-minute performance to expose the growing list of shortcomings in the Chelsea team that their coach had forewarned for much of the season.

Chelsea were fortunate to come away from Wembley Stadium with only a 3-1 loss to Tottenham on Saturday. So rampant and dominant were Tottenham's players that the margin of victory could easily have been five or six goals.

Some will attempt to put this result in perspective, arguing that it was Chelsea's first loss in 19 games this season and that an away match against Tottenham - a team that has made their best start to a Premier League campaign - will be among the toughest this season.

Look deeper, though, and there are a slew of issues to concern Chelsea coach Maurizio Sarri, who acknowledged that a "problem is evident".

The biggest might be that opponents appear to have figured out that shackling deep-lying midfielder Jorginho goes a long way to shackling Chelsea. An offseason arrival from Napoli, Jorginho dictates the way the team plays with his relentless distribution and is Sarri's brains on the field.

Dele Alli swarmed all over Jorginho on Saturday, forcing mistakes out of the Italy international and leading to him hitting out at Alli just before half-time. Everton did the same in a 0-0 draw at Chelsea in the last round of games before the international break, with forward Richarlison dropping back to suppress Jorginho, who ended up being booked for a nasty scissor-tackle on Gylfi Sigurdsson.

The fact that nullifying Jorginho is so effective naturally switches the focus to N'Golo Kante, a player widely seen as the best midfield anchorman in the world but who no longer plays in that position for Chelsea.

ATTACKING THREAT

Now, he plays in a more advanced role ahead of Jorginho, which hardly gets the best out of the France international. He was anonymous against Tottenham, offering no attacking threat as the game largely passed him by. It seems Kante's abilities are being wasted by Sarri.

Meanwhile, taking Jorginho out of the game means there is less protection for Chelsea's back four. David Luiz, a ball-playing centre back, has mostly had an easy ride this season with Jorginho sitting in front of him, but he and fellow central defender Antonio Rudiger were left badly exposed against Tottenham.

Luiz's defending can be slack at times and the way he turned his back to Harry Kane when the striker fired in a long-range shot for Tottenham's second goal would have disgusted Chelsea fans, who have seen recently retired John Terry put his body on the line so often for the team's cause.

With left back Marcos Alonso remaining very attacking down his wing, there is a danger that Chelsea's defence can be overrun.