CHELSEA celebrate a big birthday tomorrow – but at times it feels like it’s more than just the club that is 120 years old.
Despite having the youngest squad in the Premier League by far, they toiled and laboured their way to victory against a team which has now lost six games on the spin and is hurtling through the relegation trap door at breakneck speed.
GettyMarc Cucurella scored a clinical finish from outside the box[/caption]
APCole Palmer’s barren run continues after he missed a penalty[/caption]
Three points does put them back into the top four and guaranteed Champions League football next season if they stay there.
But a hard-won win over one of the worst teams in the division with a goal from the left back is hardly the stuff to trigger the popping of champagne corks for tomorrow’s anniversary.
And it’s even more of a party pooper that golden boy Cole Palmer’s frustrating run in front of goal hit a new low as he missed his first Premier League penalty.
Stamford Bridge’s poster boy was also subbed with 17 minutes left and trudged straight down the tunnel in an apparent grump at being taken off.
It might actually do him some good to feel some tough love from boss Enzo Maresca as he strives to become a consistent force and not just a once-in-a-while superstar.
New England boss Thomas Tuchel names his first squad this Friday and Palmer should be included.
But recent performances suggest he still has a way to go to becoming the star the Chelsea and England fans want him to be so desperately.
This was the third win in a row for Maresca but he knows his team is far from the finished article.
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With tougher games looming against Arsenal, Tottenham and even Brentford in the next few weeks, he needs everyone on song for the run-in.
Fifth place might be enough to seal a return to Champions League football but Chelsea’s manager cannot gamble on that.
Especially when it could have been so much more comfortable.
Palmer went down with what VAR described as ‘minimal contact’ within minutes of kick-off and Chelsea were denied an early penalty.
On 20 minutes they did get a decision from ref Tim Robinson when Jadon Sancho was tripped by Viktor Kristiansen, with minimal argument from the Danish defender.
Palmer is normally deadly from the spot. He had scored 15 out of 15 for club and country before this game.
But for the first time in his short but eventful Premier League career his precision from 12 yards deserted him.
He rolled a fairly tame shot to his right which allowed keeper Mads Hermansen time to hit the deck and push the shot away for a corner.
The fluff sums up Palmer’s mood at the moment. He has gone from being chief marksman and ‘ice-cold Palmer’ to indecisive and frustrated.
Now even from the dead ball situation with no opposition players in the way.
But it’s not as if there are countless others in this team stepping up to the plate while striker Nicolas Jackson recovers from a hamstring injury
Of the seven changes boss Maresca made from Thursday’s narrow Conference League win at Copenhagen, one was to put Pedro Neto back in as centre forward or ‘false nine’ in this case.
Not surprisingly, Chelsea struggled to make an impact, even upon a team on a headlong course straight back to the Championship next season.
Christopher Nkunku’s header which sailed wide was just about the only other effort to trouble Hermandsen – and it didn’t bother him much either.
There were more grunts and groans from the crowd at half-time than you hear when a Chelsea pensioner gets out of bed in the morning.
Talking of which, the club paraded old soldiers Dennis Wise, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Ron Harris before kick off as part of the festivities.
Squint in the afternoon sunshine and it could easily have been any of those old boys still playing, such was the pedestrian pace.
What threat they did mount on the Leicester goal either fell by the wayside or was swatted away by stout defending from Conor Coady and Luke Thomas in particular.
It was no surprise Chelsea finally had to make the breakthrough from outside of the box when Cucurella popped up yet again in his new role as left back turned midfield maestro.
This inverted tactic being utilised by Maresca has now yielded four Premier League goals for the big-haired Spaniard since mid-December.
And just when his manager needed another favour, curly-tops delivered, picking up a diagonal ball some 20 or so yards out and drilling a shot across the face of goal and in.
Instead of celebrating wildly, just turned to the fans behind them in an attempt to whip some life into them as it struggles to shine.
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