From putting in solid displays against Everton and Tottenham and even scoring in the London derby, Kalidou Koulibaly was brought back to reality after a horror performance for Chelsea who fell to a shock defeat away to Leeds United on Sunday.
Familiar pitfalls from last season showed their head again in 2022/23. Whether it was a lack of clinical edge in front of goal, to not keeping composure after a slight setback, the bad Chelsea habits that have been ever-present under Thomas Tuchel and previously Frank Lampard continue to haunt Chelsea from making a real claim to be genuine contenders in the Premier League title race.
It's still very early in the season and the west Londoners, headed by Todd Boehly off the field, can turn to the transfer market to fix some problems that were evident at Elland Road amid talks to sign Wesley Fofana, Frenkie de Jong and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
Although manager Tuchel was reluctant to turn attention straight to this upcoming week in the transfer window despite the deficiencies that were on show in Yorkshire. "I don't know. We need to wait. The transfer period is still open," he updated in his post-match press conference. "It gets later and later, and we need to focus on what we have and what we can do. We can obviously play at a high level, but we lost track when there was no need. We were not forced to lose track. Everything was going well. We can win with this team in Leeds, everything was going well, and we had goalscoring opportunities. It went the other way, and I think it was more our fault than anyone else's credit."
READ MORE: What happened to Edouard Mendy after Leeds error as Jesse Marsch avoids Thomas Tuchel issue
Koulibaly was the second signing of the summer for a mere £34million and despite a great start in his first two Premier League outings, the Senegalese was pegged back a little after he was eventually sent off against the Lilywhites.
His football.london player rating read: "The Senegal international got a very early booking when he held Brenden Aaronson's shirt after the American winger left him for dead. Should have done much better to attempt to win the header that saw Jack Harrison finish in the second period. Ultimately sent off after picking up a second yellow card when he hurled down Joe Gelhardt. 3."
Shearer, who was critical also of Edouard Mendy, believes the 31-year-old couldn't be defended after his actions let the team down in this scenario.
"You couldn't really defend him today because there were no doubts about the two yellow cards," the Premier League icon told BBC Match of the Day 2. "There's the first one of the game where he dragged him down needlessly.
"We said watching that moment that it was going to be a long afternoon for him now, particularly in that atmosphere. It was red hot inside the stadium.
"He got away with one there, he was already on that yellow card. You can see the referee say to him 'Just be careful, you need to settle down'.
"And what was it, with seven or eight minutes to go, you were 3-0 down and he leaves the referee with no other option to show him the second yellow card which gets him the red.
"He's going to have to be careful, he is that type of player. You [Mark Chapman] have just read out that stat since 2017 [the player to receive the most red cards in the top 6 European Leagues].
"He's going to have to look at that side of the game or teams will target him."
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