Chelsea 2-0 Sheffield United: A solid first start for Petrovic but Fernandez missed

Chelsea secured a rare home victory as they beat Sheffield United 2-0 at Stamford Bridge on Saturday afternoon.

After a turgid first half, Mauricio Pochettino’s side improved in the second period and their pressure was rewarded when Cole Palmer prodded home from close range after good work from Raheem Sterling down the right flank.

Chelsea’s lead was doubled just a few minutes later with Nicolas Jackson on hand to tap into an empty net, with Palmer the quickest to react and square the ball after Sheffield United goalkeeper Wes Foderingham failed to hold his initial cutback.

Christopher Nkunku was named among the Chelsea substitutes for the first time after he sustained a serious knee injury in pre-season, but the French forward remained on the bench. The Stamford Bridge crowd did, though, get to see Djordje Petrovic make his first start for the club after the 24-year-old came in for the injured Robert Sanchez.

Fernandez benched – how did the midfield look?

From the moment Enzo Fernandez’s name was spotted among the list of substitutes on the Chelsea team sheet, it was an ominous sign for what was to come.

For Fernandez to be demoted at Chelsea is a real rarity. This was the first time he has been named on the bench for a Premier League game since joining in January and only the second occasion he has been left out of the starting XI.

Now, anyone who has watched Fernandez of late will know he has struggled for form. But against opponents who were always going to play defensively, not selecting one of the best passers in the squad to help break their resistance down was always going to expose the lack of creativity elsewhere.

In a dire first half, Chelsea posed little threat against the wall of red and white shirts, especially from central areas. There was plenty of effort from Moises Caicedo and Conor Gallagher, but it made for a tough watch.

Pochettino resisted the temptation to make a change at the interval and it paid off, with Cole Palmer showing his quality after the break to score one and make another.

The game was won by the time he came on in the 69th minute so there was not much onus on the Argentine to do anything special.

How did Petrovic do on his first start?

The Serbia international keeper has had a long wait to get some minutes for Chelsea and his first taste of action last Sunday could not have gone much worse.

Brought on at Everton late on due to first-choice Robert Sanchez suffering a knee injury with Chelsea 1-0 down, it was his unconvincing punch that led to Sean Dyche’s side scoring the decisive second.

But Petrovic, who joined from New England Revolution in the summer, had a much more gentle introduction to English football at Stamford Bridge.

For most of the 90 minutes, he was a spectator as Sheffield United sat deep. There was the odd set piece to concentrate on and his only save of note came from a fine 25-yard effort by Gustavo Hamer.

With the length of Sanchez’s uncertain, keeping his first clean sheet will boost his confidence even though he did not have to work too hard for it.

Is Palmer already Chelsea’s most important player?

For the vast majority of this fixture, Chelsea fans watched on in silence as the mediocrity of this contest was played out. There was an air of resignation in the air as Chelsea made hard work of beating a team fighting against relegation.

But not for the first time this season, Palmer gave the crowd a reason to get off their feet and start cheering. After a fairly quiet first half, it was his intervention following the interval which made the difference.

The combination play with Raheem Sterling to score the first was sublime. The assist for Jackson to make it 2-0 was simple but effective — a rare thing to say about any of Chelsea’s attackers these days.

But there was more to it than that. Every time he drifted in on that silky left foot of his, the roars of appreciation grew.

Everyone knows he is already a crowd favourite just four months after joining from Manchester City and that was emphasised when he was subbed late on to a standing ovation.

What did Mauricio Pochettino say?

On leaving Fernandez out of the starting XI, Pochettino said: “Only 11 can play. It’s a big comeptition and sometimes you need one characteristic.

“One profile or another profile. I need to choose the player, and we saw the combination between Caicedo and Gallagher and Cole like a No 10 was a possibility for the best combination for today. It doesn’t mean that maybe Tuesday Enzo plays and another is on the bench.”

On contrasting halves for Chelsea, with the second an improvement after Palmer’s positional change to more of a No 9, Pochettino added: “I think it was important to now confirm that we were in a good way. Today, I think the team in the first half was a little bit frustrated because we didn’t find a way to break the low block of Sheffield United. At the same time, the 11 players were committed, chasing the opponent, trying to get the ball back as soon as possible and trying to not give the option to Sheffield United to create chances.

“In the second half, I think we fixed different positions and we started to find better possibilities to circulate the ball and stretch the line, Jackson goes into the space. We were aggressive enough but we suffered lack of aggression in the first half because we made a mistake in the way we tried to penetrate but in the second half, with the things we changed, the team found better solutions.”

What next for Chelsea?

Tuesday, December 19: Newcastle United (H), Carabao Cup, 8pm GMT, 3pm ET

The whiff of silver polish will be in the air as Chelsea host this League Cup quarter-final against last season’s beaten finalists. Win here and there’s only a two-leg semi between you and the final at Wembley on February 25, and both Manchester clubs and Arsenal are already out of the competition (the club who lift the trophy also get a place in the final round of qualifying for next season’s Europa Conference League to shove in their back pocket in case of emergency). This tie is also a swift chance to avenge that 4-1 defeat at St James’ Park three weeks ago, and the good news is Newcastle haven’t won at Stamford Bridge since 2012.

Sunday, December 24: Wolverhampton Wanderers (A), Premier League, 1pm GMT, 8am ET

Will it be a turkey or a cracker? A rare Christmas Eve fixture before the traditional Boxing Day feast of football on Tuesday. Chelsea haven’t won away to Wolves in three tries since that 5-2 stroll in September 2019 and perhaps they used up their goals ration that day, as they have failed to score in the past two visits to Molineux.