Former Arsenal midfielder Paul Merson has criticised Chelsea’s approach in the 1-0 loss to the Gunners in the second leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final, with the Sky Sports pundit saying he was “flabbergasted” at what he saw.
Chelsea travelled to the Emirates trailing by one goal after losing the first leg at Stamford Bridge, and while the Blues limited Arsenal in attack throughout the second leg they offered precious little in attack, with few clear-cut chances and little pressure despite needing to chase the game.
The visitors had just two shots on target all game, waiting until added time to apply pressure before eventually conceding a late goal as Kai Havertz sealed the tie late on, and Merson explained he was shocked with the Chelsea approach.
“I’m flabbergasted. I can’t believe what I’ve just watched. Chelsea have World Cup winners, this is not a bottom-five team,” said Merson.
“Fofana is crying. He should be crying because they never had a go. They’ve gone out with a whimper in a semi-final. It hasn’t worked. Go out in a blaze of glory, don’t go out like that.
“They’ve got the players to mix it with Arsenal, and they didn’t have a go. I’ve played in games like that, and you come off and think, ‘we just got beaten and we’ve not really had a go’. They’ll be forever thinking about that in their footballing careers,” added the 57-year-old.
Chelsea boss Liam Rosenior defended the approach, saying there were “clear improvements” and emphasising how his team “needed to make sure we gave ourselves the best chance”.
“I felt we dominated in the second half, the game just didn’t go the way we wanted it to. There are many aspects to football, tactical, psychological, physical, and also the players available to you. We can’t speak about how the gameplan went because the result didn’t go the way we wanted it to,” he explained.
But fellow Sky Sports pundit Jamie Redknapp agreed with Merson, calling the game “a tough watch”.
“I could see what the plan was from Chelsea to stay in the game and then bring on the big guns. But it didn’t happen. Arsenal weren’t at their best but [were] comfortable,” explained the former Liverpool man.
“Even the way they managed it in the end, they lost that pattern of play, they didn’t really find a way to get that urgency or the quality.
“I feel that in semi-finals it’s just a completely different thing altogether, you’ve got to throw caution to the wind, you’ve got to get the ball into the box, you’ve got to be thinking ‘no regrets after this game’.
“And I think, as Paul rightly said, there’ll be a lot of regrets in that dressing room thinking, ‘we didn’t do enough,’” added Redknapp.
Rosenior has been at Stamford Bridge for just under a month, and while his side are out of the League Cup, the Blues are still in the hunt for top four in the Premier League and have qualified in the top eight of the Champions League, with a last-16 knockout tie to come in March.
