Chelsea were beset with further misery in the Premier League last night despite the lucrative influx on the transfer front last month, labouring to a 0-0 draw against west London rivals Fulham in a result which compounded their struggles this season.
The result now leaves Graham Potter‘s Blues with just three victories from their past 13 matches across all competitions, ninth in the league with just 30 points from 21 matches played.
With Liverpool and Aston Villa holding games in hand on their west London counterparts, Chelsea could even find themselves as low as 11th in the table by 5pm this evening.
£107m January signing Enzo Fernandez impressed with his ball-playing prowess and all-embracing central work, but £88.5m acquisition Mykhailo Mudryk – who was making his full debut for the club – certainly had a match to forget along the left flank.
Substituted at half-time, the fleet-footed winger was startlingly subpar after glistening during his cameo appearance against Liverpool in his other Premier League outing. Against Marco Silva’s Fulham, though the winger was indeed “swallowed“, as remarked by FIFA journalist Sulaiman Pooja Adebayo.
As per Sofascore, the 22-year-old’s 6.4 match rating was an encapsulation of his woes on the night, with a dreadful display from Kai Havertz the only lower rating for the Blues. Indeed, Mudryk managed only 19 touches during his 45 minutes of action, completing 11 of his 16 passes (69%), winning just one of his six duels and failing to register a single shot or create a big chance.
In the few moments where play fell promisingly to Mudryk, he failed to utilise the opportunities. In one instance, he thumped a threaded pass to Havertz – who had drifted into space between the resolute Fulham backline – with far too much power, leaving the German with little chance of controlling the ball gliding into an area of direct threat.
Match co-commentator Gary Neville was certainly left unimpressed with the £97k-per-week Ukrainian’s performance, remarking during the contest, via Sky Sports Live Blog (21:02), that “Mudryk has had a poor first half and he’s off – that’s what you can do when have so many riches on the bench.”
Chelsea’s expansive pool of talent is brimming with quality unrivalled by all but a select few prestigious clubs across Europe, which will only enhance the frustration as the Blues failed to beat their local rivals yet again this season.
While the prospect of Champions League football next term appears more forlorn with each passing week, it seems a matter of when and not if the pieces of the puzzle will fall into place and Chelsea will finally unleash their full might ahead of the new era under Todd Boehly’s ownership.
Mudryk let his manager down with a tepid performance last night, but hopefully that will make him even more determined to atone for it against West Ham next weekend.
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