Chelsea produce woeful performance in defeat at Leeds

Leeds 3
Bijol (6′)
Tanaka (43′)
Calvert-Lewin (72′)

Chelsea 1
Neto (50′)

Chelsea slumped to a chastening defeat after producing their worst performance for some time.

They were woeful in the first half and trailed 2-0 at the interval after Jaka Bijol’s early goal and Ao Tanaka’s strike a couple of minutes before half-time.

Pedro Neto, on as a substitute, scored five minutes after the restart, and Cole Palmer then made his return from injury when he was also sent on.

But a defensive aberration resulted in Dominic Calvert-Lewin being gifted Leeds’ third goal.

The Blues, who sorely missed the suspended Moises Caicedo, paid the price for making a dreadful start at Elland Road, where Bijol opened the scoring by outjumoing Liam Delap to head home Anton Stach’s sixth-minute corner.

Worse followed for Chelsea when, after Enzo Fernandez had given the ball away, Tanaka blasted into the corner of the net from near the edge of the penalty area.

Enzo Maresca’s side were better in the second half – they had to be – and Neto fired in at the far post after Jamie Gittens had done well on the left.

Leeds’ Lukas Nmecha had a goal disallowed and Palmer then missed a great chance to equalise when he shot wide after being set up by fellow substitute Alejandro Garnacho.

Had that gone in, the result might have been very different. But an appalling error by Tosin Adarabioyo led to Leeds’ two-goal advantage being restored.

Inside the Chelsea penalty area, Malo Gusto passed to Adarabioyo, who inexplicably allowed the ball to drift past him and Noah Okafor to pinch it.

Keeper Robert Sanchez managed to thwart Okafor near the edge of the six-yard box but Calvert-Lewin was on hand to tap the loose ball into an empty net.

The result meant Chelsea dropped to fourth in the Premier League table – nine points behind leaders Arsenal, who beat Brentford.

Chelsea: Sanchez; Chalobah, Tosin, Badiashile (Gusto 46), Cucurella; Andrey Santos (Guiu 77), Fernandez; Estevao (Neto 46), Joao Pedro, Gittens (Garnacho 61); Delap (Palmer 61).
Subs not used: Jorgensen, Acheampong, James, Hato.