Jermaine Jenas thinks the substitution of Christian Pulisic for Chelsea should’ve come much earlier during Sunday’s 1-0 loss to Arsenal.
The Blues have now lost back-to-back games in the Premier League after suffering a defeat at Stamford Bridge on Sunday lunchtime.
Arsenal’s Gabriel Magalhaes scored the winning goal in the second-half for the visitors, with Chelsea failing to clear a pretty poor corner into the box.
Graham Potter’s side are winless in four league matches, so are leaving themselves with even more work to do to climb back into the top-four positions.
Next, there’s a midweek clash against Manchester City in the Carabao Cup.
They finish up before the World Cup with a really important trip to St James’ Park to face Newcastle United in the league.
Pulisic substitution against Arsenal
BT Sport pundit Jenas, who was on co-commentary for this afternoon’s game, did question why Pulisic didn’t enter the action earlier than he did.
The 24-year-old winger replaced Mason Mount in the 78th minute, leaving him with very little time to make an impact from the bench.
“I feel like the Pulisic [substitution] could have happened a while ago. They’ve been lacking width and pace and runs in behind,” Jenas told BT Sport 1 (1:35pm, 6 November).
Chelsea had just one shot on target during 90 minutes of football at home, which goes to show how far off the pace they were.
Yes, it was a tough game against an Arsenal side that are now back on top of the league table.
However, the Blues fanbase will be very disappointed with the team’s efforts today.
Pulisic is perhaps a tad unlucky not to be getting more minutes on the pitch because he’s a front-footed attacker that does try to influence a match positively.
However, it wasn’t a big surprise he was on the substitute bench on the weekend.
With Chelsea seriously struggling to carve out clear opportunities, it’s a fair comment that Potter perhaps could have pulled the trigger earlier on his substitutions.
Joe Cole said this week he would like Pulisic to get a proper run in the team with consistent starts, something which should be a little closer when you see how his teammates got on as an attacking unit.
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