At 4:00 Beijing time on January 19, a game played in advance of the 24th round of the Premier League, Chelsea played away to Brighton. In the first half, Ziyech scored and in the second half Webster equalised with a header, with Chelsea 1-1 forcing. After this campaign, Chelsea trailed Manchester City at the top of the table by as many as 12 points, basically declaring despair.
The match was preceded by Chelsea's big win at the FIFA Awards, with Tuchel winning Best Manager, Mendy winning Best Goalkeeper and Kante and Jorginho both being named to the All-Roms squad. But back in the league, what they feel is bitterness.
In the 27th minute, Kante knocked back from the edge of the penalty area, and the follow-up Ziyech fired furiously at the ball, and the ball hung straight into the dead corner, 1-0! However, Ziyech was expressionless, without even the slightest thought of celebrating.
As a member of the Champions League champions, Ziyech has not been able to play the main force for most of this season, and because of the conflict with the national team manager, he was defeated in the Africa Cup of Nations squad, and his depression was overflowing.
After taking the lead, Chelsea did not take advantage of the chase to kill the game, and like the first leg, they were ruthlessly countered by their opponents. In the 59th minute, McAllister sent the ball into the box, Webster's header went into the net, Kepa couldn't do anything, the score became 1-1!
For the rest of the day, Chelsea were even pressed by Brighton, with Tuchel anxious on the sidelines. In the 79th minute, Tuchel played three cards in a row, with Havertz, Kovacic and Wernaqi coming on.
The two sides fought for 90 minutes to end in a 1-1 draw, with Chelsea scoring just one point. In the first leg of the match, Chelsea was eliminated with a 1-goal lead, and now the same script is playing out again.
In just 20 days, Chelsea collapsed all the way, winning four consecutive rounds, drawing 3 and losing only 3 points. Now, Chelsea are still 12 points behind Manchester City in one round of multiple matches, and still one point behind Liverpool in two more games. From the perspective of the title race, Chelsea basically declared despair, and even the competition for runners-up became a problem. The only good thing is that Chelsea are still nine points ahead of Fifth-placed Arsenal, and keeping the top four in the Premier League is not a big problem.
In this game, Lukaku was once again embarrassed, he only completed 2 shots on goal, most of the time invisible, only scored 6.8 points, played 80 minutes before being replaced.
This summer, Chelsea spent 120 million euros to bring in Lukaku, but before he gave a private interview and took the initiative to show his overtures to Inter, which triggered contradictions in the Chelsea team, and was once banned by Tuchel. But after his comeback, Lukaku continued to slump, scoring only eight goals in 23 appearances in all competitions, sorry for the Blues' investment and expectations.