Mauricio Pochettino faces impossible Chelsea obstacle after Middlesbrough expose brutal truth

Those travelling Chelsea supporters did not hide their disgust at full-time as they witnessed their side perform poorly for 90-plus minutes at the Riverside Stadium on Tuesday night. Defensive mistakes, inability in front of goal and sloppiness in possession – these are all things we saw from the Blues too often away at Middlesbrough.

Boro, a team sitting mid-table in the Championship, were predictably nothing too special on Tuesday. Yet they completely deserved their win. Yes, Chelsea had all of the possession in the north east, but it was rendered meaningless in the end.

Their movement and actions in attacking areas was too slow, too predictable – something we saw a lot earlier in the season. But after three straight wins, albeit against teams Chelsea should beat, their attacking mojo looked to be somewhat back.

Cole Palmer, Raheem Sterling and Noni Madueke were the front three away at Boro and they had all produced some strong performances in recent matches. So when the teams were announced an hour before kick-off on Tuesday evening, there wasn't really too much disagreement, although Armando Broja being on the bench was perhaps a tad surprising.

And then when the game started, balls kept flying into the box whenever Chelsea were in wide positions. Make that make sense. Broja is the only attacker in the squad right now, with Nicolas Jackson at the Africa Cup of Nations, with any sort of aerial prowess.

It was once again a performance from Chelsea where you just cannot fathom what they are trying to do. There is such a lack of identity within the squad in terms of how they play.

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