Let’s forget that and move on, shall we? Chelsea suffered more embarrassment, as they followed up their 3-0 home defeat to Bournemouth with a 4-1 defeat away to Watford. Tiemoue Bakayoko was sent off after half an hour, then Thibaut Courtois gave away a penalty which saw Troy Deeney put the Hornets in front. Eden Hazard equalised less than ten minutes from time, before three late goals shocked Chelsea to give Watford all three points at Vicarage Road:
3. Olivier Giroud
The Frenchman makes it into the top three, purely down to the poor performance from the rest of the side. Giroud played around half an hour, and made an encouraging start to life at Chelsea. His introduction into the game gave Chelsea an actual player to target, something which they had struggled to do with Pedro and Hazard attacking. The Frenchman played a part in the goal, albeit minimal. His attacking awareness dragged the Watford defender out of position to free up space for Hazard to unleash his shot. He could’ve opened his account on his debut late on, but couldn’t direct his shot goalwards.
2. Eden Hazard
Hazard probably had one of his quietest nights in a Chelsea shirt this season, but still managed to find the back of the net and find his way into the top three. Deployed as the false nine once again, the Belgian was slightly quiet at the beginning of the game. Bakayoko’s sending off, and Willian’s subsequent substitution, meant Hazard and Pedro shared the work of three attacking players. Despite being subdued for large parts of the game, he still managed to find an inch of space and fire brilliantly past the Watford goalkeeper.
1. Chelsea Fans
Look, I know this isn’t technically a player. But due to the performance, I don’t think anyone from the Chelsea side last night deserves this. The Chelsea fans at Vicarage Road, however, deserve all the plaudits. Despite all the concerns about the future of the manager, and the side’s recent form, the away support were in full voice to back the team and Antonio Conte. Although the performance didn’t show why the Blues fan should be in full voice, the fans were singing constantly and were the club’s Man of the Match.
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