Who's leading the charge as Chelsea battles for supremacy against West Ham?
[Getty Images] Chelsea's frailties were "so exposed" against Paris St-Germain and it could now be the time for "discussions" over the club's project, says European football expert Julien Laurens. Liam Rosenior's side suffered their joint-heaviest aggregate defeats in a European tie, losing 8-2 to last season's Champions League winners PSG on Tuesday. Mistakes cost Chelsea across both legs and highlighted the weaknesses in the young squad that has been built under the BlueCo ownership of Todd Boehly - who was in the stands to watch - and Behdad Eghbali since 2022.
"Very disappointing from a Chelsea perspective. The fans were not happy and you could feel the tension," Laurens, who was at the match, told BBC Radio 5 Live Breakfast. "Some of them left after the hour when Liam Rosenior, at 2-0 down, decided to take off Enzo Fernandez, Joao Pedro and Cole Palmer – his three best players.
The fans had seen enough. "It was embarrassing, really. It was embarrassing for Rosenior to have got his gameplan so wrong, to have got everything wrong really in his coaching from the first leg to the second leg.
These games are sometimes on thin margins, I get that, but it was really two classes apart between the two teams. "The defensive frailties we have seen already this season under [Enzo] Maresca and now under Rosenior were so obvious and so exposed by this PSG team. "Maybe now is the time to have that discussion about the Chelsea project and investing all that money in young players.
At times, to be ruthless, especially in the Champions league, you need more than just youth. " After the dismal display, who do you think has the biggest lesson learn? Is it the players?