They continued to dominate possession, but there was little Chelsea could do when Middlesbrough took off on a quick break that led the the only goal of the game. It was Hayden Hackney who rushed onto the pass into the area with a quick effort that was enough to get it past goalkeeper Djordje Petrovic.
Even in the second half, the Blues constantly dominated the proceedings but could not score a single goal. Mykhailo Mudryk and Armando Broja were brought on to help improve their chances but to no avail.
The spotlight, however, was on captain Conor Gallagher, who had a rather quiet night. His inability to lead the Blues to a better performance did not go unnoticed by the fans, as he struggled to create and find chances himself. His off-target shots and all-round drab performance sparked a lot of criticism on social media, as fans slammed the midfielder for his outing against Middlesbrough. One fan said:
“Get him the hell out of here”
Another fan demanded:
“Sell him tomorrow”
Here is a selection of their tweets:
Cole Palmer failed to meet expectations in Chelsea loss
Chelsea had several attacking woes to deal with against Middlesbrough, but one player who really struggled to meet expectations was Cole Palmer. Manager Mauricio Pochettino opted to use the attacking midfielder in a striking role due to squad depth issues, but it did not yield results.The England international squandered multiple chances to score, with some of these efforts being rather glaring. In the most notable of these shocking misses, Palmer was in prime position in the six-yard box to latch onto a rebound and score, but he sent his shot well over the bar.In total, the attacking midfielder had four shots at goal, three of which were major misses that he could have been more clinical with. He will be hoping to improve on his performances as Chelsea will need to play Middlesbrough at Stamford Bridge, and potentially win.
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