Youth prospects Ronnie Stutter, Alex Matos and Alfie Gilchrist were three of Chelsea’s subs with 12 first-team players missing
There are so many questions that still need to be answered about Chelsea’s £1 billion squad overhaul, but the most pressing of those is currently this: how can a team assembled at such expense arrive for a Premier League match with only three senior players on their bench?
Mauricio Pochettino’s list of absentees is currently his biggest problem, although it is far from the only issue facing Chelsea’s head coach. A total of 12 first-team players were missing for this goalless draw with Bournemouth and, when Pochettino turned towards his bench to see how he might change a strange game, he would not have seen many options. In truth, he might not even have seen many familiar faces.
The likes of Ronnie Stutter, Alex Matos and Alfie Gilchrist might one day become household names for Chelsea, but they are not there yet. This was not a day for senior debuts and instead Pochettino stuck with the players he knows best, perhaps more in hope than expectation.
Pochettino cut a frustrated figure in the technical area for much of the second half Credit: Reuters/Matthew Childs
It has been a joyless start to the season for Chelsea and this was another joyless result. With so many star players currently nursing injuries — record signing Moises Caicedo is the latest to be struck down, with a knee problem — there was no variety and not much invention on show from the visitors.
At the end their supporters booed again, as they had done following the defeat by Nottingham Forest in their last outing. It was a sense of misery that was in keeping with the mood on the pitch, with Chelsea’s players spending most of the game either grumbling at each other or shaking their heads in disappointment.
Enzo Fernandez sulked throughout, Thiago Silva was in a continual state of irritation towards his team-mates and Mykhailo Mudryk looked as lost as ever. Only Conor Gallagher and Raheem Sterling showed any real drive, with Sterling striking the bar with a second-half free-kick, against a Bournemouth team that never stopped fighting for a well-earned point.
