Chelsea made to suffer but still get through a serious scare at Lincoln City

Photo: ©️ Capital Football

Lincoln City (1) 1 v Chelsea (0) 2

Street 42

George 48

Buonanotte 50

By Kaz Mochlinski at Sincil Bank

Football League Cup

Third Round

Chelsea avoided an immense upset in the League Cup at third-tier Lincoln City, but only after recovering from having gone a goal down and being given a huge fright on a memorable night at Sincil Bank.

Rob Street deservedly put the Imps ahead three minutes before half-time, only for Tyrique George to pull the Premier League superstars level inside three minutes in the second half.

Embarassingly trailing at the end of the opening 45 minutes, Chelsea took the lead five minutes following the restart when Facundo Buonanotte brilliantly scored his first goal for the club.

The two Chelsea goals were separated by just over two minutes and came from their first two shots on target. Both were superb in execution, with a spectacular long-range strike from George and a mazy dribble by Buonanotte.

But the Blues hardly threatened thereafter to extend their advantage and continued to be made extremely uncomfortable by an unceasing barrage of high balls into their penalty box before eventually emerging unscathed.

Lincoln have to be very proud of the extent to which they challenged the current Club World Champions, whose overwhelming emotion at the final whistle was relief at overcoming their lower league opposition.

Having not played against Lincoln since 1911, and not faced them in a knock-out competition after meeting in the FA Cup in 1907, Chelsea’s visit to the cathedral city had the feeling of a special occasion.

Both those previous encounters at Sincil Bank well over a century ago had finished 0-0, and this time the Imps were undoubtedly the more likely to break the deadlock in the opening stages of the match.

After a perfect golden sunset had lit up Lincoln Cathedral, on a hill overlooking the city centre and the local football ground, the capacity crowd saw the home side hit the post with just over a minute having been played.

A Tom Hamer long throw was not cleared by the Chelsea defence and Lewis Montsma reacted quickly for a snap shot from the right-hand side of the penalty area across the face of the goal but rebounding back off the far post.

Photo: ©️ Capital Football

Chelsea had notably conceded a stoppage time equaliser at Brentford from a long throw recently, and in Lincoln they faced the leading set-piece specialists in the top four divisions, having scored from 30 set plays last season.

Every long throw, free-kick or corner was a concern. And, with reserve goalkeeper Filip Jørgensen struggling to secure anything sent into his area in the air, Chelsea had to survive a series of goalmouth scrambles.

In between several wild lunges at high balls, Jørgensen’s best connection was with his own player, knocking down centre-back Wesley Fofana - at a time when Chelsea are already depleted by injuries in that position.

Deprived of Robert Sánchez by his suspension for the red card in defeat at Manchester United over the weekend, the Blues’ head coach, Enzo Maresca, was sufficiently perturbed to call Jørgensen over to the sideline for a long talk during a break in play.

However, Chelsea’s Conference League-winning goalkeeper was helpless when exposed by a terrible defensive mix-up among his teammates for the opening Lincoln City goal - with the captain on the night being most culpable.

Enzo Fernández floated a pass across the back line far too casually and Ivan Varfolomeev intercepted the ball ahead of Trevoh Chalobah, laying it perfectly into the path of Street to strike first-time past Jørgensen.

Varfolomeev is Lincoln’s record signing at £350,000 - a huge contrast to a Chelsea XI worth an estimated £367.3 million (even excluding any add-on fees), with players valued at a further £247.6 million sitting on the substitutes’ bench.

Significantly, the Imps were not at their strongest, as head coach Michael Skubala felt that he had to reward the squad members who had got the team through to the third round of the Carabao-sponsored cup, making five changes from his league line-up.

A run of seven games without defeat in League One had lifted Lincoln to third place in the table, and overall they were unbeaten in 10 matches in all competitions. Having lost only once this season, there was no evident fear in playing the Blues.

Meanwhile, with five summer signings in the starting side, and a sixth sent on later as a substitute, Chelsea are yet again faced with integrating numerous new players. From a bad beginning, improving after the interval was essential.

Photo: ©️ Capital Football

Maresca declined to elaborate when asked afterwards about how vocal he had been in the dressing room at half-time. But his team emerged early for the second half, somewhat sheepishly perhaps, and more than three minutes prior to Lincoln City.

The Blues needed less time than that to level the tie after kicking-off again, taking only 122 seconds for George to fire in a fantastic first-time shot, rattling in unstoppably off the upright, providing a fine finish to Jamie Gittens’ left wing run and pass inside.

Another 137 seconds later and it was 1-2 from a one-two between Buonanotte and George, aiding the Argentinian’s slalom through the Lincoln defenders to slide the ball left-footed under the goalkeeper, Zach Jeacock.

George will have been exceptionally happy at providing the decisive goal and assist, having so nearly been sold to Fulham at the end of the transfer window. He is still only 19 years old, learning the professional game, and gradually getting better.

Buonanotte almost added a second individual goal when getting clear once more, but his shot was stopped by Jeacock’s leg. A skillful and astute playmaker, he showed himself to be a good option in the number 10 role in Cole Palmer’s absence with injury.

Conversely, Alejandro Garnacho and Andrey Santos’s first starts for Chelsea were less successful. Whether on the left wing or subsequently on the right, Garnacho was particularly disappointing, from a first run sideways and a second which was offside.

Garnacho was the first player to be substituted at Sincil Bank by Maresca, who later made another of the triple changes that he likes, including bringing on Marc Cucurella as a holding midfielder alongside Andrey Santos for the last 20 minutes.

Even after that Lincoln had chances to force a penalty shoot-out. But ultimately Chelsea managed to get through this testing trip, escaping without equalling the embarrassment of Manchester United’s loss at nearby Grimsby Town in the last round.

“I’m really proud of the way the lads went about their work” enthused Skubala. “In the end, we were disappointed not to take it to penalties. Not many teams can make Chelsea time-waste at the end of a game. We can take massive confidence from this.”

Maresca damningly admitted “it’s about desire… and we struggled”, as well as acknowledging “I think we were also lucky”, while Malo Gusto echoed his boss’s sentiments, stating “We were like kids in the first half.”

Photo: ©️ Capital Football

The Chelsea coach made his dissatisfaction clear to his players, but at the same time he accepted that their lack of experience was an excuse, especially against this type of opponent in such a setting not seen by many of them before.

“We knew already, we were aware, the game that we expect in terms of long ball, duels, throw-in, free-kick, every time inside the box. I know that some of them, they didn’t play these kind of games.

“I asked today how many of them they play against League One teams. Because you need to know you need to play a different kind of game. It’s not the same game, because the desire is double from them, from duels, these kind of things.”

And he continued, referencing Jorrel Hato among other players: “We prepared the game thinking exactly the way was the first half. And sometimes it’s not about - it’s about desire, it’s about winning second ball, but it’s also about experience.

“Jamie Gittens never play against League One these kind of games. Jorrel never played this kind of game. These kind of games you want to play in different way, you have to play in different way - it’s more about desire… and we struggled first half.

“If the next game in Carabao is again against a team League One, League Two, away, for sure tonight’s experience will be good for the next one. So we need this experience.

“We need also because, you know, already about, you know, the age, the experience - player that they never played these kind of games. So tonight has been good. Also because we won the game.”

Additionally, Maresca felt compelled to defend his goalkeeper’s performance on Jørgensen’s first start of the season: “I think that I don’t know how many balls they put inside the box tonight, throw-in, free-kick, cross.

“So I think it was not easy for any keepers, to be honest. And I think overall, even though we concede against Brentford in ‘extra time’ from throw-in, it’s not easy. It’s not easy because they bring so many players inside the box.

“They try to create chaos around the keeper, so you cannot move, you cannot go out, you cannot catch the ball. It’s difficult. And also for Filip I think it was the first game of the season. So not easy. But, at the end, again, we won the game.

“And I was very worried about this game.”

Lincoln City: (5-3-2) Jeacock - Darikwa, Montsma (Okoronkwo 85), Bradley, Towler, Hamer - House (Hackett 71), McGrandles, Varfolomeev (Bayliss 71) - Draper (Collins 71), Street (Obikwu 71)

Chelsea: (4-1-4-1) Jørgensen - Gusto, Chalobah, Fofana, Hato - Andrey Santos - Gittens (Neto 70), Buonanotte (Walsh 94), Fernández (Cucurella 70), Garnacho (Estêvão 59) - George (Mheuka 70)

Attendance: 10,214