Chelsea kicked off their Champions League campaign with a dire defeat in Croatia against Dinamo Zagreb.
Thomas Tuchel’s men put in a sub-par display as they were beaten for the third time away from home this term, as their stuttering start to the season continued. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was thrown into the starting XI, but a lacklustre Blues outfit again failed to click in attack and fell to defeat thanks to Mirslav Orsic’s 13th minute goal.
Raheem Sterling and Kai Havertz both also started in attack, but no matter how much Tuchel’s side huffed and puffed, they failed to find a breakthrough. The German wasn't impressed.
Indeed, that unhappiness came out in Tuchel's post-game interview and he has seemingly accepted his side are currently negotiating with a number of mounting problems.
“Of course I’m frustrated; there’s too much to analyse, I’m a part of it, and we are clearly not where we need to be,” Tuchel told BT Sport. “At the moment everything is missing.”
When asked if confidence is seeping out of his faltering squad, Tuchel replied: “It seems like this, it’s hard to argue against it.
“You can analyse it like this, of course.
“At half-time, we made some changes, we encouraged them, told them to play with more emotions, play tougher and to step up. But it’s obviously hard at the moment for us.
“This has nothing to do with a worry – it’s a reality. It’s underperformance from us, a bit the same story as always.”
And if one moment encapsulated what he was talking about, it came deep into injury time at the Stadion Maksimir.
Hakim Ziyech, who had wanted to leave in the summer for more regular action but remained, was one of the substitutes to whom Tuchel had turned during his side’s turgid display.
But the former Ajax star struggled to make an impact, offering little bar a plethora of inaccurate crosses and painful set piece deliveries. One of those, just as they headed into injury time, was a poor free kick straight into the wall from 25 yards out.
As the clock hit the 96th minute, the Blues had another free kick in a dangerous position, once again 25 yards from goal, after a strong run from Reece James. James, who had earlier hit the post and was, arguably, one of the few Chelsea players to emerge from the fixture with any credit, was keen to take it. He placed the ball.
On his left was Mason Mount, on his right was Ziyech. And the Moroccan, despite his previous dreadful effort, was having none of James’ desire and pulled rank.
A few words were exchanged, Ziyech shrugged his shoulders and James - who appeared to say something along the lines of ‘are you kidding, after the last one?’ - looked both utterly bewildered and frustrated. He even let out a little laugh and smirk at having been overruled.
Jorginho, wearing the captain’s armband after coming on as a substitute, was nowhere to be found to mediate the situation.
And while Mount left the scene, James barely budged. Now normally, if you aren’t taking the set-piece, you step away, give the guy taking it room in which to work. Basically, you don’t encroach on his space. James remained within a yard of the ball, hands on hips, his frustration clear.
Whether it had an impact on Ziyech’s effort, who knows. It was every bit as bad as his first, again dismally hitting the wall. But James will have known he was placing that little bit of extra pressure on his teammate by being in such close proximity.
“Where’s the leadership there?,” asked Martin Keown on BT Sport commentary. Simply, it was AWOL.
Chelsea’s new owners spent a one-window Premier League record of £273million on transfers this summer but they remain a team in transition, looking less defensively sound than they ever have under Tuchel while looking much less than the sum of their parts in attack..
"There are no days off, the next day is working,” added Tuchel. "We can't have a day off at the moment."
His side’s transition is proving to be far bumpier than most imagined.
