Former Premier League striker Alan Shearer has delivered a brutal verdict on Chelsea's first-half display against Manchester City in the FA Cup third round. Riyad Mahrez gave City the lead after 23 minutes before Julian Alvarez converted from the penalty spot with Phil Foden adding a third before half time.
Chelsea were haunted by Mahrez for the second time in four days after he struck a delightful free kick past Kepa Arrizabalaga less than 72 hours after scoring the winning goal in the Premier League clash between the two teams on Thursday. Kai Havertz then bizarrely handled inside the penalty area from a City corner with a spot kick then converted by Alvarez, with Chelsea fans insisting he should be sold in the summer.
Things went from bad to worse for the Blues before half-time, with a sweeping Man City move from left-to-right finished off by Foden to make it 3-0, with little sign of a reaction from Graham Potter's side.
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Multiple injuries in the Chelsea squad forced Potter to name an understrength starting XI and bench, but Alan Shearer believes that is not an excuse for the Blues.
At half time, covering the clash as a pundit on BBC One, Shearer said: "From a Chelsea point of view, it’s not acceptable that performance. I said beforehand they need a bit of energy, character, all of those things.
"I don’t care how many injuries you’ve got in your team, you can still go out and put a shift in. They haven’t, and it’s embarrassing from their point of view."
Praise for City and their emphatic start followed but Shearer ensured Chelsea were not let off the hook, continuing his brutal assessment of the Blues.
He said: "From Chelsea that is nowhere near good enough, there is no energy, no tackles, nothing. You’ve got to get closer - they’re good players. It’s got to come from the manager. Just have a look at their body language, it’s as if they don’t really want to be here, feeling a bit sorry for ourselves, got players out injured, and don't really want to be on the pitch.
"Absolutely it’s got to come from the manager. Nowhere near good enough from Chelsea. They’ve had a really tough afternoon defensively, but going forward it’s so bad you wouldn’t believe it. They’ve had no link up play, no options, they’ve been slow.
"They’ve had one effort on goal, no touches in the 18-yard box, they have been nothing short of pathetic really in forward positions."
Shearer added: "They sometimes work the ball out from the back which they’re doing really well, but look at what happens. The Man City press has been really good, but they work it well, then you think where’s my options? What are they going to do?
"All of a sudden they come back inside, go back to the centre-halves, then look what happens. It eventually ends up back with the goalkeeper. Where’s the movement? There’s nothing. They’ve had nothing up front at all. You’ve got Havertz, you’ve got Mount. Everything has been backwards or sideways, they’ve had nothing in forward positions."
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