Levi Colwill should’ve done better for Fulham’s late winner (Picture: Getty)
Troy Deeney has called out Levi Colwill for laziness in Chelsea’s 2-1 loss to Fulham after he didn’t sprint and had ‘no desire to get back’.
The Blues thought they had secured a 1-0 win over their west London rivals on Boxing Day thanks to Cole Palmer, only for Harry Wilson to equalise late-on and Rodrigo Muniz to score a dramatic 95th-minute winner.
The defeat is damaging to Chelsea’s Premier League title hopes, with Arsenal now able to leapfrog them if they beat Ipswich on Friday night.
Deeney analysed the match on BBC Final Score and criticised Blues centre-back Colwill over Muniz’s winner, with Fulham’s Sasa Lukic able to ghost past the Chelsea defender and into space to set up the goal.
‘It’s so poor from Chelsea defensively,’ Deeney said. ‘Levi Colwill doesn’t even break into sprint and has no desire to get back.’
The former Premier League striker, now a football pundit, added: ‘It is well played from Fulham. They’ve planned for this and he’s got the goal.’
Colwill was not the only Chelsea player to face criticism with fellow football pundit Mark Schwarzer slamming goalkeeper Robert Sanchez.
Robert Sanchez also faced criticism from pundits (Picture: Getty)
‘Robert Sanchez looked to hit a massive diagonal and he doesn’t hit it properly,’ former Chelsea ‘keeper Schwarzer told the BBC.
‘That enabled Fulham to hit them on the counter and players were caught out of position. The goalkeeper has to look at himself, it was a poor clearance.’
Despite Chelsea’s problems in goal and in central defence, the club’s owners are adamant that they do not need to upgrade those two positions to challenge for the Premier League title.
Fulham’s two late goals stunned Chelsea at Stamford Bridge (Picture: Getty)
That claim has been made by a number of different pundits, including Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher, amid Chelsea’s rise up the table.
Meanwhile, Shaun Wright-Phillips believes Chelsea never found an appropriate replacement for former centre-back Thiago Silva.
Wright-Phillips recently told sportscasting.com: ‘They let Thiago Silva go, but they didn’t replace him. I think they need more experience in the defence.
‘They’re not struggling to score goals. That’s not a problem for them right now.
‘The problem is they’re conceding goals. If they can cut some of those mistakes then again, we see a different Chelsea.’