Rosenior laments loss of lead and late Palmer miss as Chelsea’s Premier League winning run ends

Chelsea (1) 2 v Leeds United (0) 2

João Pedro 24

Palmer (pen) 58

Nmecha (pen) 67

Okafor 73

By Kaz Mochlinski at Stamford Bridge

Premier League

Matchweek 26

Cole Palmer incredibly missed an open goal to win the game in stoppage time as Chelsea threw away a two-goal lead and squandered two points against Leeds United to end their Premier League winning run under Liam Rosenior.

Having been victorious in seven of the new head coach’s opening nine matches, among them all four in the league - losing only to Arsenal in the two legs of the League Cup semi-final - Chelsea finally succumbed to the first draw of his tenure.

Almost inevitably it came against Leeds, who have registered seven draws in the Premier League since start of December, including now in five of their last six away games, as they slowly edge further from the threat of relegation.

The result dented Chelsea’s efforts to secure a Champions League qualification place for next season, with a belief that they should be beating Leeds, whose record on the road during this campaign was worse than every team apart from Wolves and Burnley.

João Pedro put Chelsea ahead in the first half from the best move of the match, and Palmer doubled the advantage with a penalty after the interval. But another spot kick, converted by Lukas Nmecha, very unexpectedly gave the visitors renewed hope.

And just six minutes later Leeds were level after a terrible defensive mix-up by the Blues back line, who were distracted by the hint of a handball and did not take several chances to clear the ball before leaving Noah Okafor with a tap-in to an empty net.

“Two key moments in the game that we don’t take care of, we don’t stay calm” lamented Rosenior. “We give away a penalty when, genuinely, I can’t remember Leeds having a shot at any moment in the game.

“Some of our football in possession, our press, our energy, was everything I wanted to see. And that makes it even more of a bitter pill to swallow that we haven’t won the game.”

It was the sixth time at Stamford Bridge this season that the Blues had gone in front and failed to win, but all the previous occasions - against Brighton & Hove Albion, Sunderland, Arsenal, Aston Villa and Bournemouth - had preceded Rosenior’s arrival.

“I think it’s within six minutes” added Rosenior. “The ridiculous thing for us is that they’ve managed to score two goals in that period, when, for the other 90 minutes of the game, we were by far the better team.”

That was not surprising, as Leeds arrived at the Bridge substantially weakened without their leading scorer, Dominic Calvert-Lewin, and two other notable first-choice regulars in Anton Stach and Pascal Struijk. Predictably, they set up to frustrate the home side.

Chelsea’s captain, Reece James, was absent due to illness, but their two superstars, Palmer and Estêvão Willian, started together for the first time under Rosenior - and for only a fourth match in total. So far they have yet to win a single one of them.

Nevertheless, they were excellent to watch, producing clever combinations, with Estêvão on the right wing, while Palmer and Enzo Fernández would swap between attacking from the left flank or as a more central playmaker.

However, the biggest change brought in by Rosenior has been to move the ball forward markedly faster with sharp, one-touch passing, in preference to the much slower, possession-based approach taken previously when Enzo Maresca was in charge.

With Palmer and João Pedro at the heart of the slick interchanges, it was fitting that these two players linked up to break the deadlock midway through the first period, with a brilliant sequence of passes that completely cut Leeds open.

Andrey Santos found Palmer, who had slipped subtly away from his markers to make space and time to weave his magic, playing a perfect left-footed ball sending João Pedro clear for a sweet left-footed finish over the advancing goalkeeper.

The cobbled-together Leeds defence was made to look clumsy and ponderous, with Palmer shortly afterwards getting in a shot which was saved by Karl Darlow, but otherwise United mostly managed to repeatedly scramble and stop Chelsea.

Deploying a back five, plus two more defenders in the midfield four in front of them, Leeds limited their significantly superior opponents to only occasional half-chances despite all of the Blues’ bright build-up play.

The game was well into the second half before Chelsea eventually scored a second goal, and it required a Palmer penalty. Moreover, the opportunity arose not through elegant interplay but a hopeful long ball forward from Robert Sánchez.

Chasing after it, João Pedro knowingly nudged Jaka Bijol away to gain himself more room, to which the big Leeds centre-half responded by chasing him down and much more forcefully pushing the Brazilian striker in the back to knock him to the ground.

Palmer’s penalty record is renowned already and he coolly dispatched a fourth spot kick in his last four matches to improve his overall total in the Premier League to 18 successful conversions from the 19 that he has taken.

Yet again in the course of this campaign Chelsea had cause to be very grateful to their two leading scorers in João Pedro and Palmer, who have this season in all competitions now registered 13 and nine goals respectively.

Palmer is getting close to his old self after groin and thigh injuries, contributing an assist and a goal against Leeds. João Pedro also scored and then was responsible for winning the penalty to take his team two goals up.

All of it was wasted by awful defending at the other end. Rosenior was right to point out that United had not had an attempt on target when they were given a lifeline with a penalty equally ridiculously conceded as the earlier one.

Two such similar fouls in the box unnecessarily given away by each side is unusual, with Moisés Caicedo being the Blues’ culprit pushing Jayden Bogle from behind as well as extending a leg round him to make sure the Leeds player was brought down.

Bogle was also instrumental in the equaliser, charging forward from the right once more, and keeping going even after the ball flew awkwardly close to his right elbow, although any slight contact was undoubtedly inadvertent.

With Chelsea defenders panicking and failing to make the clearance, plus Sánchez rushing off his line but not claiming the ball, Leeds could have had another penalty as Bogle went down again in the commotion.

Nmecha kept calm amid the chaos and nipped in to slide a pass out to Okafor in the open for an easy finish, justifying the decision of Daniel Farke, the United manager, to bring on the forward as a substitute in place of a centre-back.

This was the sixth successive game in which Chelsea had not managed to keep a clean sheet. And it has not been helped by Rosenior naming eight different partnerships of central defenders to start his 10 matches in charge.

Josh Acheampong had to take most of the blame this time, and he was immediately replaced by Wesley Fofana for the closing stages, while the Blues additionally sent on Liam Delap to try and recover the victory.

Chelsea had sneaked a 3-2 win over West Ham United in their previous home game with a goal in added time, and they came exceptionally near to repeating that feat through their most creative piece of play in the second half.

As time was running out, in the 94th minute Caicedo exchanged a one-two with Malo Gusto and drove in a superb low cross from the right wing, for which Palmer made a move into the six-yard box unseen by the Leeds cover.

He was on his own, less than two yards out from goal, when he connected with the ball first-time on his favoured left foot. It was almost impossible for him not to score, but somehow he sent the effort over the crossbar.

Palmer then stayed for ages holding on to the netting inside the goal while attempting to process his disbelief at the miss, described by his coach accurately as “just that one-in-a-thousand moment”.

And Rosenior retains plenty of hope for the future still, in spite of the setback: “If we can just focus and concentrate for 90 minutes, this team has unbelievable potential, which you saw for probably 90% of the game today.

“A month in, I feel like I already know what we need to work on to improve that.”

Chelsea: (4-2-3-1) Sánchez - Gusto, Acheampong (Fofana 79), Chalobah, Cucurella (Hato 46) - Caicedo, Andrey Santos (Delap 79) - Estêvão (Neto 64), Palmer, Fernández - João Pedro

Leeds United: (5-4-1) Darlow - Justin, Bornauw (Okafor 55), Bijol, Rodon, Gudmundsson - Bogle, Ampadu, Gruev, Aaronson (Longstaff 95) - Nmecha (James 82)

Attendance: 39,253