Copyright CBS Sports
When Estevao opened the scoring for Chelsea only 16 minutes into their Champions League match against Qarabag on Wednesday, it seemed like they'd roll to victory in Azerbaijan, but instead they found out why Qarabag are one of the surprise outfits of this UCL campaign in a 2-2 draw. After Hato conceded a penalty via a handball in the box, Qarabag were able to go into the half with a 2-1 lead, and while Alejandro Garnacho did pull a goal back to level things, the Blues couldn't find a winner in a game that was a grind from start to finish. With almost a 3,000 mile journey to Baku, Enzo Maresca had to rotate his squad to cope with the travel, but it only took eight minutes for his carefully laid plans to be destroyed when midfielder Romero Lavia left the match with an injury and was replaced by Moises Caidedo. At half, another shift was made was Tyrique George was limited to only 13 touches in the first half and had to be pulled in favor of Liam Delap, who returned from a hamstring injury. The changes did work as the Blues were able to turn a loss into a draw but being outperformed by Qarabag isn't what they had in mind. The Blues held most of the possession and took 16 shots while only generating 1.08 expected goals. Meanwhile, Qarabag generated an xG of 1.65 on only nine shots. Even taking out their penalty, that efficiency shows what Chelsea are missing in their striker merry-go-round. The Blues have been forced into making changes due to suspensions and injuries, but depite their hot starts to life at Chelsea, the duo have combined for three goals and three assists in all competitions. Wingers like Estevao and Pedro Neto have done what they can, but without Cole Palmer, the attack's struggles put too much pressure on Reece James and the defense. Qarabag essentially out-did Chelsea at their own game, turning counters into goals, and there was nothing that Robert Sanchez could do about it. Many of these issues are resolved when Palmer returns to the center of the pitch, but when the Blues have aspirations of finishing in the top four of the Premier League while also balancing Champions League, they need to perform in these moments when their stars aren't available. it's what the top teams do, and so far, Chelsea haven't bridged the gap from being a good team to becoming a great one. They're still on the right track to advance to the knockouts of this tournament, but while losing to Bayern Munich showed how far they have to go, this game showed where depth players need to improve to make the Blues a more consistent side.
