(Video): Most praised Chelsea player makes mistake that could cost his team the Champions League | OneFootball

We have been saying it every day since Chelsea beat Liverpool a week ago – this Newcastle game is as big as it gets.

We’re level on points, we’re level on goal difference. There are 2 games to play after this. Beat the Magpies at home and we can almost taste Champions League football. Even a draw keeps us in the race. What we couldn’t afford to do was concede and get this voracious home crowd up and shouting.

Well, with less than two minutes on the clock, we did just that.

Sloppy goal with mistake from key man

Romeo Lavia has the ball pinched off his toes.

It was a really sloppy, messy goal to concede. A player was down in the box, which seemed to distract our defenders somewhat. But that should be no excuse. We just didn’t clear the ball properly, and Romeo Lavia, having soaked up a week’s worth of praise, was at fault in giving the ball away when he tried to be a little bit too clever in front of his own box.

There’s no point being too harsh – there are other mistakes in this move beyond his one – but it’s an eye catching error from a player you can usually rely on.

You can see the goal in the clips embedded here:

[Footage from TNT Sport]

https://x.com/CFC_Janty/status/1921522368440115256

[Footage from Canal Plus]

[Footage from SuperSport]

The only advantage of conceding so early is that we’ve got a long time to get back into this game. But we’ve dug ourselves into a hole just when we needed to not do that.

The crowd are really into it now, and we need to steady the ship with some possession. They’re keen to keep the tempo high and the game frantic, but after this early wobble it’s important that we get steady and control the game for a while.

This is a huge test of everything we’ve built this season, and of Enzo Maresca’s skills.