Chelsea players branded ‘lazy’ and ‘anti-football’ with lacklustre pressing during 1-0 defeat to Manchester City as Cesc Fabregas watches the ball while walking
Clip of the Blues stars standing completely still while City passed circles around them set plenty of tongues wagging
ON their day, Manchester City are simply unstoppable.
But in the case of Chelsea they are stoppable – stopped, to be precise – even when they should be busting a gut to win the ball back.
One clip doing the rounds on social media epitomised the horror show, as a host of Blues star stood completely still while City passed rings around them.
Cesc Fabregas managed to move a couple steps to "close-down" man of the match David Silva only to stand there.
Fabregas, 30, looked part bamboozled by City's pass-and-move game - but also like he had given up.
After all, at 1-0 down with 20 minutes to play, you'd expect your star midfielders to to run their guts out to push for the equaliser.
But the footage naturally angered the entire footballing community, from former pros to armchair warriors.
After the game, Sky Sports pundits Jamie Redknapp and Gary Neville tore into Chelsea for their dreadful showing.
Redknapp claimed: "It was anti-football.
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"That was a crime against football what they [Chelsea] did today... it was like they didn't want to go forward at all.
"Chelsea gave them three points before they started."
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Meanwhile, Neville added: "Chelsea haven't been brave today.
"We see year in, year out there are many, many teams who have to play deeper because they're playing against a superior team.
"I was critical of Newcastle before Christmas because I thought in the first half hour of that game, the intent was really poor.
"But this is woeful from Chelsea. It really is. In terms of a Premier League game it's unacceptable.
"That has nothing to do with solidity or shape of the team they are playing, it is just the intent.
"Look at them. When I'm sat in this seat you always think: 'am I calling it wrong or am I being too harsh?'
"There is no part of me that can watch this and think this is right. It just is not right."
Meanwhile, Twitter had their say on the dreadful, lacklustre, simply lazy pressing during the game.
One social media user claimed: "Fabregas going the extra mile there. What a Trojan. He put more effort into getting Fernandinho sent off in last season's game."
Another tweeted: "Look at the pressing from the Chelsea players. Embarrassing."
A further Twitter user added: "I counted 43 passes, Chelsea were just not eager for the ball and it made the game one sided!#sharkteam."
One even pondered: "Chelsea were awful, I mean who walks when pressing!"