Chelsea completed their domestic season with a tepid 0-0 draw at Leicester, but confirmed their place as the ‘best of the rest’ behind Liverpool and Manchester City in 3rd. Also, we have bragging rights in London again, finishing above both Arsenal and Tottenham – where we belong.
The match itself was uneventful for large parts, and maybe our players are just focusing on that huge Europa League final in a few weeks’ time.
1st Half – Life After Hazard?
Before the game, many would have anticipated Leicester to go gung-ho at us, as they did to Arsenal at the end of last month, but it was Chelsea who were in control early on. Eden Hazard was on the bench, so it gave us a glimpse of what we can expect next season. In a word. Toothless.
We had plenty of possession, which I like, but we just didn’t have the cutting edge, as Leicester defended resolutely. Hazard was involved in more goals (31) than any other Premier League player this season, with 15 assists, and 16 goals, so it’s no surprise we looked like this without him.
We rarely look threatened in the first half, and it seemed to me the game was going on forever, without anything actually happening. So, moving on…
2nd Half – Game Fizzles Out
There was no more life introduced to the game after the interval either, and the key talking points for the 2nd half for Leicester was them giving goodbye performances to Danny Simpson and Shinji Okazaki.
For Chelsea, we did bring Hazard on, but to no real impact made from the Belgian. Willian and Pedro had solid games for Chelsea, but they didn’t create enough in such a lacklustre game. Gonzalo Higuain, who has just scored 5 goals for us, was almost non-existent until he had a decent opportunity in the latter stages of the game.
His effort was skewed wide though, as the game finished 0-0. The two teams didn’t really have much to play for, and with it being a warm day at the end of the season, I wasn’t expecting it to be that exciting. We had given all of our energy to Thursday night.
What Next?
Well, that’s it. The Premier League season is over, and I really don’t know how we finished 3rd. As inconsistent as we have been, Arsenal, Tottenham and Manchester United have been even worse. It’s been a poor season in my opinion, but a slight improvement on the last. We are back in the Champions League again, and that was the main objective.
With some new recruitments, let’s hope we can start challenging for the league again – but it will be a big ask!
Don’t forget, we also have the Europa League final to look forward to. Let’s hope we can win our 3rd European trophy this decade, whilst preventing Arsenal from winning their 1st ever, as well as obtain Champions League football for next season. Bring on Baku on May 29th!