Chelsea eventually cruised to an easy 5-0 FA Cup win at home to League Two Morecambe on Saturday.
It was a victory worthy of not three cheers, but two, perhaps one, as the Premier League giants faced sweltering weather against their humble visitors before a flurry of three goals in seven second-half minutes marred the result.
In the display that secured Chelsea's qualification to the FA Cup fourth round, few members of the club's reserve team made a strong case for promotion to the Premier League. Premier League eleventh.
How the game unfolded
Chelsea He started Saturday's match with the confidence of a team that sits 87 places above its rivals in the league. The struggling fourth-tier team remained confined to its own half for most of the first 15 minutes before collapsing late under increasing pressure.
Morecambe captain Yann Songo'o took an unorthodox approach to blocking Joao FelixHe casually raised his arms instinctively, holding them upright as if preparing to dive into an invisible swimming pool. But Christopher Nkunku failed to punish the captain for the flop.
The French striker curled a low shot into Harry Burgoyne's wings, and watched as the Shrimps goalkeeper kept the score level.
Those inside Stamford Bridge ended the first half with their necks twisted, their eyes constantly fixed on the Morecambe half. But Derek Adams' side fought back valiantly, pulling the red shirt in front of the ball as Chelsea unleashed a flurry of shots. Unfortunately for the lively visitors, Callum Jones was not going to stand in the way of Tosin Adarabioyo's effort, as he inadvertently deflected the centre-back's shot beyond his own goalkeeper in the 40th minute.
Nkunku made up for the foul penalty five minutes into the second half. Jones emphasized the quality of Chelsea's opponents with a touch inside the box that was very heavy and may have been a pass to Renato Vega. Burgoyne blocked the Portuguese midfielder before Nkunku fired in the rebound.
After more than an hour pinned to the ropes, Morecambe eventually collapsed to the canvas during the final 20 minutes. Tosin added his second goal of the match – Chelsea's third – with a beautiful shot from distance that did not require the misdirection of a deflection to fool Burgoyne.
Joao Felix quickly found his target, scoring twice less than two minutes apart to take the score to 5-0.
Morecambe had the opportunity to give the rowdy traveling support something to shout about away from their hated owners. Through a rare striker in the 88th minute, Hallam Hope was responsible for the visitors' last chance, but he calmly passed the ball into the welcome gloves of Philip Jorgensen.
Check out the player ratings from Chelsea vs Morecambe here.
This, although he does not want to be, is the level of Christopher Nkunku these days. the previous German League The goalscorer and £52m recruit was the reluctant talisman of Chelsea's reserve team. Of the 13 matches he has made this season, only three have been in the Premier League.
Nkunku made the most of these cup matches; His calm finish on Saturday was his 11th goal in the Europa League, Carabao Cup and FA Cup. However, the Frenchman couldn't even smile.
Maybe the penalty miss in the first half was still weighing on him, or maybe he would have scored a point more. Rumors have been growing this month claiming that Nkunku is in a desperate search for A Stay away from Stamford Bridge To earn some minutes against clubs that were just above the professional pyramid of 91st. Barcelona has been mooted as a possible destination, but Mariska insists He wants his disgruntled attacker to stay.
It remains to be seen whether Nkunku can endure another six months among the students.
No VAR in the FA Cup Third Round means this penalty will not be retaken 😶#BBCFACup #BBC Football pic.twitter.com/4lhv4H6JM7
– Match of the Day (@BBCMOTD) January 11, 2025
As Chelsea discovered on Saturday after Morecambe's Harry Burgoyne crept off the line to save Nkunku's penalty, there was no problem. VAR was used in the FA Cup third round. The controversial video system has many flaws, but it certainly would have caught the goalkeeper wandering illegally, allowing Nkunku to recover the penalty he saved.
This was little more than a minor issue at the end of Chelsea's comfortable win, but teams won't always be so lucky.
The world's oldest cup competition has long struggled to decipher how to best implement technological advances. The FA Cup was a decade old before the permanent crossbar was introduced, let alone stadium screens. It is difficult to find the logic behind the seemingly arbitrary decision to implement VAR from Round 5 onwards.
Football fans can't agree on much, but the vague concept of 'continuity' seems to be one value they hold dear above all others. In this case, how can there be any uniform standard for judging a competition whose rules change from one match to another?
On a day when Tyrique Jorge showed some flashes of promising movement – especially after the introduction of a sloppy full-back to take away some of the defensive focus – and Joao Felix scored twice, Marc Guyot emphatically failed to make his mark.
The former Barcelona striker, whose powerful style had earned him six goals in his previous five matches, finished the match with 11 touches. Even that paltry number – the fewest of any player on the pitch to last a full 90 minutes – seemed too high for the impact he had.
Hidden in a mass of Morecambe red jerseys sunk into a mass so low that it veered into the Shed End at times, Guiu spent large swathes of Saturday's contest completely separated from the rest of his team-mates.
While Nicholas Jackson's decline in form may offer a path into the first team, Joey has done little to suggest he deserves a starting place in England's top flight.
