Liam Delap 'was not happy' after starting Chelsea's Carabao Cup loss to Arsenal as a winger, claims ex-Blues favourite

Chelsea had been aiming to mount a comeback against Arsenal and secure a place at Wembley in the final of the Carabao Cup. However, the Blues found it tough going in a drab game at the Emirates, with Kai Havertz scoring the only goal of the match late on to send Arsenal through 4-2 on aggregate. Chelsea came in for criticism afterwards, with pundit Paul Merson saying the Blues "played like a bottom four team."

Rosenior defended his tactics after the game, telling reporters: "You can come away from home, press all over the pitch, mouth the man and you could go 2-0 up or you could go 2-0 down. I felt that the psychological aspect of the tie was very important as well and I felt in the stadium as well. 60 minutes, I bring on Cole [Palmer] and Estevao and the game opens up and we have moments in and around the box. I think there was a feeling in the stadium that this tie could turn. We didn't achieve what we wanted to, but it's not about game plans, it's about results. I have to give our players so much credit for what they put into the game and ultimately their goal comes when we're just throwing the kitchen sink at the game. That's going to happen, but we have to make sure that we take the positives from that, but we're here to get results."

Gullit felt that playing Delap out wide was an issue as he looked lost in an unfamiliar position. He told Gambling Insider: "Liam Delap was not happy with starting on the right wing against Arsenal. It’s clear that Liam Rosenior played him there so they could launch long balls to him, but he looked totally out of place. I know it was all tactical, but I don’t think Delap looked happy about it at all. If you get the ball into the box, then Delap will do his best to get on the end of it, but when you’re asking him to drop deeper into midfield or out wide, then it’s a different story. It’s a pity that Delap didn’t play closer to Joao Pedro, because the Brazilian looked all on his own up front. I feel like that would have helped both players if they started in attack together. 

The Dutchman also felt Chelsea lacked creativity throughout the match, adding: "Chelsea took too long to be brave against Arsenal last night. When Cole Palmer and Estevao came on, it looked a little bit better, but that was also because Arsenal themselves began to withdraw as the game went on. Chelsea didn’t have the firepower to get close to Arsenal – they barely had any shots on goal. I understood Liam Rosenior’s setup to try and not concede for as long as possible away from home, but there was no creativity throughout the match – nothing at all. Arsenal defended well and barely gave them any chances – they were never outplayed in the game.”

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Chelsea splashed out £30 million ($40m) to sign Delap in the summer but he is yet to consistently impress for the Blues. The summer signing has only scored once in the Premier League and pundit Troy Deeney thinks he is not enjoying life at Chelsea.

He told Football Xchange podcast: "He looks, he doesn’t look like he’s playing with any fun. It’s like how do I you know hit someone with a big shoulder which gets the fans showing that I care? And you know if he came through at Ipswich I’d go okay fair enough. Like that’s kind of the lower league thing that you have to do. But he’s from City. You know, you’ve been at a massive club. You know how these teams play. You were you were educated in this in this style of play to be running off the shoulders. And I don’t know, maybe it’s the injuries, maybe it’s the transfers, maybe there’s some stuff going on that we don’t know about off pitch, but it just feels to me like he needs a break. He needs like he needs like the summer to come and just like get yourself off to Mykonos for a couple of weeks and just think it just feels heavy."

Chelsea will aim to bounce back from their disappointing cup exit on Saturday when they return to action in the Premier League against Wolves at Molineux.