The time has come to stop putting any bad Chelsea result and/or performance simply down to a lack of experience.
Chelsea’s transfer policy of generally signing young players under the Todd Boehly-Clearlake consortium means that argument is often spoken about among pundits and fans in the immediate aftermath of any setback.
Liam Rosenior’s side are the youngest team by average age in the Premier League, but it is not as if this is a first XI packed full of rookies from the academy, learning their trade. The squad is blessed with internationals who have played at the highest level. Oh, and the majority of them cost a pretty penny too.
The manner in which Chelsea blew a 2-0 lead, only to end up with a point at home against Leeds United, provided the latest example of players making the kind of mistakes that should not be excused in that way.
Just look back at what happened in the build-up to the penalty which gifted Leeds a way back into the game.
A ball from Ethan Ampadu over the top towards James Justin led Andrey Santos, covering for the advanced Jorrel Hato, to make a desperate tackle. The Brazil midfielder won the ball, but it ran perfectly into the path of Jayden Bogle.
There was still no reason to panic. Closing in on the Leeds man was £115million ($157m at current exchange rates) club record signing Moises Caicedo, widely regarded as one of the best No 6s in the world. This was his 131st game for Chelsea, following 53 appearances for Brighton & Hove Albion and 58 caps for Ecuador.
Trevoh Chalobah was well positioned to help handle Bogle’s run, with Josh Acheampong and Malo Gusto also marking Lukas Nmecha and Noah Okafor in the area respectively. Was there a threat? Yes. Was there cause for Caicedo to make a reckless last ditch challenge at that stage? No.
And yet that is exactly what Caicedo did, bringing Bogle down, with Nmecha converting the resulting spot-kick.
It was a sloppy error from a player who should know better. The Ecuadorian’s age (24), which is hardly ‘young’ in world football anyway these days, was not the reason that happened.
Fast forward six minutes later. Leeds were finally consistently playing the physical, route one football that unsettled Chelsea to similar effect in their 3-1 win against them at Elland Road two months ago. They could sense weakness in the hosts.
Those that champion the inexperience argument will rightly point to the poor manner in which Hato, 19, coped with a ball over the top. Fellow 19-year-old Acheampong was also pretty weak as Bogle competed for possession with him on the edge of the area, which included a strong claim for handball against the Leeds man that was looked at by VAR, but not penalised. The desperate lunge that followed from Acheampong was not great either.
Yet it would be wrong just to point the finger at the two teenagers. Caicedo had a chance to win possession on the edge of the area, only to make soft contact with his left foot, and Bogle was allowed to continue battling forward.
Caicedo, like France international Gusto nearby, stood and watched as Acheampong struggled to negate the danger. England defender Chalobah was guilty of doing much the same thing, having initially put all his focus into appealing to referee Robert Jones over Bogle’s handball. Santos made the effort to run back and came to a halt too. Robert Sanchez appeared to hesitate in the confusion at first, before charging out of his goal and into Bogle.
By the time the Chelsea players named above realised Acheampong and Sanchez had failed to deal with Bogle and began to move again, it was too late. It meant that, when the ball ricocheted to Okafor, the Leeds substitute had an empty net to aim for. Including Sanchez, there were six Chelsea players to Leeds’ three within close proximity of the ball at that moment.
If one of Chelsea’s outfielders had gone to Okafor — or in Gusto’s case stayed with him — instead of ball watching, they might have escaped without conceding. This was a case of simply not doing the basics, rather than players being too raw at this level.
Chelsea still should have won the game though. With two minutes of added time remaining, Caicedo crossed to an unmarked Cole Palmer, one of the best players on the night, two yards out. It was harder to miss than score, regardless of the ball bouncing before making contact. But miss it the 23-year-old England international did, sending the ball over and into the Matthew Harding End. Palmer has scored 52 goals for Chelsea in two-and-a-half years. It should have been 53.
Cole Palmer scored a penalty but should have had a second goal late on (Andrew Kearns – CameraSport via Getty Images)
To put all this further into perspective, 11 of the 15 players head coach Liam Rosenior used played in the Club World Cup final win against Champions League holders Paris Saint-Germain under Enzo Maresca last July. Seven were involved in the Conference League final victory against Real Betis two months earlier.
Out of the 20-man matchday squad, 13 were part of the group who finished fourth in the Premier League in 2024-25. Only two of the 15 used against Leeds have not received an international cap, but substitute Liam Delap and Acheampong have played for England Under-21s. This is not the report card of a bunch of beginners.
Naturally, having a veteran such as Thiago Silva, who led by example in the latter part of his career at Stamford Bridge, would be a benefit to any side. But purely focusing on that does a disservice to the experienced players they do have. Enzo Fernandez is a World Cup winner with Argentina and Marc Cucurella was part of the Spain side that won the 2024 European Championship. Then there is captain and England international Reece James, missing on Tuesday night through illness, who was part of the Chelsea side that won the 2021 Champions League.
Players are not robots. Making mistakes is part of the game. But Chelsea have now dropped 17 points from winning positions this season, with 15 at home (the most in the Premier League). It is far too many.
The club’s standards should be higher than this. The quality of some of Chelsea’s forward play during the Leeds match deserved three points, not one.
Rosenior, who had previously highlighted the need for Chelsea to respond better to setbacks in matches, struggled to contain his frustration afterwards. Speaking to TNT Sports, he said: “We have to make sure we are switched on for 90 minutes, as simple as that. We should come away with three points. We haven’t because of two moments.
“We gifted Leeds a point. At 2-1, take the sting out of the game. Whether we think it’s handball or not, we are in control of the game. Kick the ball away and then appeal for handball.” When talking to the written media he added: “We have to just make sure we take care of moments and be professional.”
Produce this kind of attacking performance on a consistent basis for the rest of the season and they have the talent to qualify for the Champions League via a top-five finish. There will be a costly price to pay if they do not.