Well, I didn’t think it would be possible, but Chelsea’s 6-0 defeat at the Etihad back in 2019 is no longer the worst Chelsea performance in the history of the WAGNH Community Player Ratings. It wasn’t quite beaten, but it was exactly matched by Tuesday’s 3-0 defeat to Brighton.
Three of Liam Rosenior’s last six games in charge are now all on this list, The Hall of Shame if you will. He’s the first head coach to have three entries on the list, which is especially impressive considering the rather abbreviated length of his overall tenure. He had to go, which he’s now done, though the players are still here and they haven’t exactly been covering themselves in glory for quite some time now either. Will that change now? Seems unlikely, but surely it cannot get any worse … can it?
BAD (3.5-4.4): Acheampong (4.3, sub), Hato (3.6), Chalobah (3.5)
TERRIBLE (2.5-3.4): Sánchez (3.4), Essugo (3.3, sub), Cucurella (3.2), Guiu (3.2, sub), Enzo (3.0), Caicedo (2.9), Lavia (2.8), Neto (2.6)
MAN-AGED (1.0-2.4): Garnacho (2.4, sub), Fofana (2.2), Gusto (2.2), Delap (2.0)
The Hall of Shame is now up to 14 entries. I’m going to have to start cutting this down to like a top ten if we keep adding to it at the rate we’re going.
I’m still keeping this first on the list in an executive decision (or on goal difference). For over seven years, it was tough to see Chelsea ever “topping” this performance. Technically, we still haven’t done so, but we did match it by average ratings. City’s finishing was more clinical in this game however, and as result, it remains the team’s worst loss in over three decades. We were down three inside of 20 minutes, down four by half, and gave up two more in the second half for good measure. The nadir of Sarri-ball, or (almost) any ball.
The players are not fit to wear the shirt, said Liam Rosenior in his final post-match press conference. A coach not fit for the job, a squad not fit for the shirt, an ownership not fit for the club.
Who let the record skip? The team showed no desire, said head coach Enzo Maresca, but our mentality was just one of the many aspects lacking in this one. In fact, we were found lacking in just about every aspect of the game, from attack to defense, from planning to focusing, from strategy to execution.
“When we conceded the third goal the team gave up.”
The second of back-to-back 3-0 losses, and back-to-back Hall of Shame entries, and our third three-goal defeat in four games (all losses), conceding twelve goals in that span. Everton’s greatest margin of victory over Chelsea in the Premier League era. The only player showing any fight: 18-year-old Estêvão. Liam Rosenior: aging men and creating ifs. BlueCo masterplan: chef’s kiss.
This was the away game before the (aforementioned) City away game, and with Chelsea giving up four goals in the second half of this one and four goals in the first half of that one, we managed to lose 90 minutes of (away) football by a combined 8-0 scoreline. Now that is truly impressive!
Chelsea had lost this Champions League Round of 16 tie in the first leg already, so all we really wanted to see was some reasonable effort, a bit of quality entertainment, and some desire. We conceded twice in the first 15 minutes, and it only got more embarrassing from there. Not one player stood out; everyone was simply bad. Our worst home game*, and worst European match in WAGNH Player Ratings history.
*not counting the 4-2 home defeat against third division Bradford City in the 2014-15 FA Cup, which wasn’t televised
Antonio Conte’s last Premier League game in charge, which began with Chelsea holding a slim chance of qualifying for the Champions League (Liverpool won so it didn’t matter in the end), but ended up with yet another hilarious collapse. A week later, Chelsea beat Manchester United in the FA Cup final so yeah, good luck figuring out football.
There were many lows of the (We’re-Just-Not-That-)Interim Blues, and this was certainly one of them. Chelsea came back to smash Steaua 3-1 in the second leg of the Europa League Round of 16 and would eventually go on to win the competition. In retrospect, viewed through the lens of recent seasons, it must be acknowledged that this interim era looks pretty okay.
The second lowest rated game at Stamford Bridge in the history* of our WAGNH Community Player Ratings (*see Bradford City caveat above). That said, we would finish both this season (2023-24) and the following season (2024-25) strongly despite the springtime games that made this list. Can we do the same this season?
Outside of the first few minutes, Chelsea were never in this game, which was played in July in an empty stadium thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. What made the result even more shocking was Chelsea’s generally very good play and form during “Project Restart”. Like the current editions, this was a fairly young and inexperienced team, but with Frankie’s Fledglings we at least seemed to be on the right path for (re-)building towards a more positive future.
Conte lost 3-0 to Bournemouth in the game before this and asked the club for an official vote of confidence, which was then followed by an even worse performance as 10-man Chelsea were destroyed at Vicarage Road. In fairness, Chelsea, after falling behind, actually equalized in the final ten minutes despite playing a man down since the 30th (Tiémoué Bakayoko taking the ultimate prize with a 1.4 individual rating). But Watford took the lead again immediately after Hazard’s equalizer and the Blues folded from there.
Fun fact: Bakayoko’s rating stood for a long time as the lowest individual rating. It was “bettered” by Robert Sánchez’s 1.1 against Manchester United earlier this season (when he got himself sent off in the fith minute).