Chelsea lost their FA Cup semi-final against Manchester City at Wembley yesterday despite having plenty of opportunities to score.
Nicolas Jackson wasted a few good chances and the striker and his Chelsea team-mates were made to pay when Bernardo Silva popped up in the 84th minute to make it 1-0 and win the game for City.
Jackson will now get a lot of the blame for the Blues’ defeat, but their defending for the goal was very questionable for some.
Chelsea will try to make amends when they take on Arsenal in the Premier League on Tuesday.
Finishing in the top six is now their only route into the Europa League, so they need a positive result.
READ MORE: Who is Nicolas Jackson? Profile, Transfer, Wage, Family and More
Micah Richards blames Chelsea defender for role in Manchester City defeat
Jackson should have obviously done better with his chances. If he did, Chelsea probably would have won the game.
However, Micah Richards was not too impressed with one Chelsea player’s defending for City’s goal.
The former right-back felt that 25-year-old Marc Cucurella fell asleep and could have done much better.
Speaking on BBC One (20/04/2024 at 19:22), Richards said: “[Jeremy] Doku comes on and we are talking about [Kevin] De Bruyne in the No.10 role. Can he find a little bit of space? You see there, Cucurella goes to sleep and it’s unlucky for the goalkeeper.”
Who should start at left-back against Arsenal?
Ben Chilwell is fit again and came on in the second half versus City, so the Englishman is an option to start at left-back on Tuesday.
Perhaps Cucurella’s defending before City scored yesterday was not great, but Chilwell did not pull up any trees when he was introduced to the game.
He actually had a great chance to square the ball to Raheem Sterling but took one touch too many.
If you are going off that cameo, the England international probably did not do enough to oust Cucurella out of the team.