In the 3-2 defeat to West Ham hardly any Chelsea players covered themselves in glory, especially goalkeeper Edouard Mendy.
Seldom is there a moment in which an Edouard Mendy criticism article can be published, but today is the day. After giving away a penalty and being beaten at his near post from what appeared to be nothing more than an optimistic cross, Mendy had never conceded three goals in the same game for Chelsea under Thomas Tuchel up till now.
Despite Mendy being a sensational signing for the Blues, his performance on Saturday has raised a slight bit of doubt which some may find a bit harsh but unfortunately, this is the nature of the elite sport, especially when Thomas Tuchel’s men are aiming for the title.
In the latest CareFree Chelsea match reaction, Chelsea regulars Scott Clayton (SC), Anita Abayomi (AA) and Jai Mcintosh (JM) discussed the fallout out from Tuchel’s second league defeat of the season, including the lacklustre performance by Mendy.
AA: “I don’t want to be so harsh on Edouard Mendy because he’s had such a good year for Chelsea, he’s been amazing but blimey- did he wake up late? Did he have something in his coffee? What happened? He was off the mark from minute one.
“I just didn’t understand his thought process, especially for the penalty. Firstly Jorginho was absolutely wrong for making that pass back to Mendy. I don’t think he assessed the situation properly but Mendy could’ve done damage control and just casually cleared it out.
“There are so many things you can do in that situation but whatever you do, you clear the ball the moment it comes to your foot. If you see a West Ham player running, chasing behind the ball and being no more than two feet away, you get there first and clear the ball!
“You don’t try and do skills- who do you think you are, Mendy? I know you’re good with your feet but you’re not Ederson or Manuel Neuer. You have to walk before you can fly and the decision making as a whole was just so poor.
SC: “Chelsea should rest Mendy against Zenit St Petersberg on Wednesday. That’s my advice. We’ve already qualified, it’s time to give him a rest. He looked all over the place against West Ham and he seems like he needs a bit of a rest.”
AA: “I couldn’t fathom how bad he was against West Ham. Positionally awful, distribution awful. Do you know when we used to say Kepa made the backline unstable? Well, Mendy made the backline unstable against West Ham. They stopped passing back to him after a while and I noticed it. All I’ve got to say is we all love Mendy, but he needs to wake up.”
Would you rest Edouard Mendy against Zenit? Follow our Carefree Chelsea team Anil, Jai, Scott and Anita on Twitter to get involved in the discussion and give us your thoughts in the comments section below.
