Mauricio Pochettino suffers first Chelsea loss as Blues' unfamiliarity continues to be their downfall

With all the money spent on transfers, it has yet to come together for the Blues

LONDON -- A spending spree running towards the billion-pound mark can bring you many things, including a collection of some of the most heralded young talent in the global game. What it cannot bring you, on the evidence of proceedings in east London, is a team that has learned what to do when the opposition hands it a lifeline.

This will be a match that comes to be defined by two penalties, one missed by Enzo Fernandez, another conceded by Moises Caicedo, Chelsea's two £100 million-plus midfielders making the wrong sort of decisive contribution in the same penalty area. It ought to have been a game that pivoted on Nayef Aguerd's clumsy challenge on Nicolas Jackson with more than 20 minutes left to play. West Ham might have been leading 2-1 and there might be few teams better equipped to manage a man disadvantage than one managed by David Moyes, but the game was there for the taking by anyone in blue prepared to get a grip. No one could or would.

Chelsea's forlorn pursuit of an equalizer reflected a club still in search for its ringmaster on and off the pitch. The ball was cycled from flank to flank only for crosses to be punted in the direction of the titans that patrolled West Ham's box. The hosts had looked vulnerable in the extreme when Raheem Sterling and Carney Chukwuemeka had squeezed into the space between their defensive lines before the interval. Their total collapse in invention cannot be attributed to the latter's exit with what looks to be a worrying knee injury.

It might merely be a facet of a team that still has an awful lot to learn about each other. Only three of this squad had donned the Chelsea shirt before the start of last season. Five of them had made their first Premier League starts seven days ago in the draw with Liverpool. If that sort of team is going to struggle in any circumstances, it will be attempting to break down a massed low block. However, players of such youthful repute, with lofty price tags to their name, should have established much earlier that lofted crosses into the penalty area were just what the 10 West Ham players still standing wanted to face.  

Teams that are thrown together in a hurry concede goals just like Aguerd's opener, six minutes into the contest. By that time James Ward-Prowse had already crashed one corner into a dangerous position, forcing an awkward flap by Robert Sanchez. His second delivery was precise, Aguerd brushing off Conor Gallagher, his header thudding in at the Chelsea goalkeeper's near post. To be so loose after a week when Mauricio Pochettino had been hammering home the danger West Ham posed from set pieces left the manager far from impressed.

From a low base, Chelsea built their way back up. Raheem Sterling continued in the same vein as his sparky display in the season opener, winning the penalty from which his side might have taken the lead. The logical answer to the question of who bends the contest to their will might be the veteran England international but this is a forward who spent most of the last decade providing the final cut to Manchester City's surgical incision. He is not necessarily a lead creator.

Fernandez may well be, showing as he does an eye for a pass that the defense often does not seem coming. It was apparent that even before Caicedo's introduction in the second half, the Argentine was placed higher up the pitch by Pochettino, Gallagher an ill fit as the sole pivot. His natural position might be the off-ball role occupied by Chukwuemeka but if he has avoided serious injury, his brilliant bending strike is enough on its own to merit him starting further matches.

In his first-half performance and that of Nicolas Jackson, a handful attacking the space in behind defenses, there was cause for real optimism. Even after Michail Antonio barged past Levi Colwill, sent Axel Disasi backtracking and drove low into the corner, Chelsea looked a threat. Then came the red card. From then on, Fernandez did not create another chance. The Blues took just three more shots.

"We started to take rash decisions, we didn't find the right timing in offensive situations," Pochettino acknowledged. 

Some credit for the change in circumstances ought to go to the hosts. Against most opponents, a clumsy dismissal like Aguerd's would be manna from heaven. Not West Ham, who you could have kidded yourself would have favored going about their task with a man disadvantage. From there they could deliver the basest of defensive performances: pack the box, cede the flanks and back yourself to win the aerial duels. 

Moyes might have garlanded his players with more praise, instead, he suggested his team had been rather fortunate. "

We've always been a pretty well-organized side in defensive situations," he said. "I've questioned it quite recently with some of the performances we've had, I don't think I've seen that all of the time.

"On another day Chelsea would probably have got on the end of a couple of their crosses or shots. For us today, it went in our favor."

 That assessment did not necessarily reflect how shrewdly West Ham held onto their lead.

Noni Madueke and Malo Gusto schemed no end down the right in impressive fashion but when the time came to hit the ball into the box they still needed to find a landing point between the hulking figures of Tomas Soucek, Kurt Zouma and Angelo Ogbonna. More often than not West Ham forced Chelsea to start over again.  They seemed to appreciate that some opponents needed closer attention than others. After a dangerous first half, Jackson found his supply lines had dried up. When a cross from the right did find a blue shirt it was none other than Mykhailo Mudryk, whose technique has looked so shaky since his £88.5 million move from Shakhtar Donetsk. It was no surprise to see him balloon his shot toward the dipping sun. Indeed it was a fair question -- which would drop out of the sky first?

Pochettino insists the youngster will come good. Asked if the wait for a first goal was playing on Mudryk's mind, his manager said, "He needs to be more desperate to score. Today he played 45 minutes, he needs to have continuity but he needs to build that and trust in the trainings in the week. He's a young player we need to trust. He has enormous quality and talent, it's only time for him to settle better in the team."

If it is fair to question whether Mudryk will actually fulfill the inevitable expectations that come with his price tag, Caicedo deserves an awful lot more credit in the bank for his form at Brighton. That he did not immediately recapture that his Brighton performance probably has more to do with the fact that the 29 minutes he got Sunday were his first in a competitive environment since playing for Ecuador nearly two months ago. This was little more than an inauspicious beginning, a clumsy late foul on Emerson Palmieri handing Lucas Paqueta the chance to crown an impressive performance in trying circumstances with the game-sealing goal.

West Ham had responded to their setback in the fashion of a team who have been through these moments hundreds of times before. Chelsea looked like what they were, a collection of young men still learning how to manage unfamiliar situations. One point from their first two games is another one of those. Pochettino and his players will need to address it soon.