It could take Chelsea a while to recover mentally from the crushing opening night defeat they suffered at the hands of Dinamo Zagreb in the Champions League, with head coach Thomas Tuchel able to confirm that after he was sacked on Wednesday morning.
A single goal early in the first half from Mislav Orsic, who loves to score against London clubs, separated the two sides in the end as Ante Cacic's side defended like warriors against a toothless Blues outfit.
Nothing clicked in the attack and defence, and it was unsurprising to hear Tuchel seem visibly frustrated for the first time since the Arsenal humbling in pre-season. It's important to remember that the Blues face a tough Fulham team in their next outing this weekend in what is expected to be a tough West London derby.
"Of course, I'm angry at myself. I'm angry about our performance. This is a huge underperformance from all of us," he summed up in his post-match press conference. " It's not precise enough. It's not clinical enough. It's not aggressive enough on the ball. It's not determined enough. It's not good enough individually. It's not good enough as a team."
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He then went on to clarify why he was angry with himself: "Because I didn't see it coming. Obviously, I was in the wrong movie. I did not see that coming. I thought that the last game helped us, I thought we showed a reaction in a very difficult moment against West Ham, got the reaction, got the result in the moments when you need a bit of luck in the situation we were in. We had good training sessions, I thought the team was prepared, I thought we knew what this is all about. I didn't see it coming, that's why I'm angry with myself."
With all of this taken into account, football.london takes a look at how the National Media reacted to the biggest shock of the night, which came in Group E.
The Telegraph
'There have been performances like these over the years that have seen Chelsea managers, no matter how successful, dethroned by the Russian who once ran this club with little room for sentiment, so one wonders how the new regime of American private equity might be different for Thomas Tuchel.
'Different bosses; same fixation on results; and the sense that something is malfunctioning at the heart of Chelsea. This was a sensational performance from Dinamo Zagreb, who exploited the flaws in Tuchel's team with a sense of purpose that was thrilling to watch. Yet as Chelsea's Champions League-winning manager switched between formations and personnel, it was notable that he just kept coming up with the same results.
'The winning goal was scored by Mislav Orsic, an occasional Croatia international who scored a hat-trick against Tottenham Hotspur in the Europa League last year and another against West Ham in the same competition last December. At 29, he has played in Italy, South Korea and China, and against Chelsea, he looked more dangerous than all the many expensive attacking options at Tuchel's disposal.
'It felt like a game too early for the debutant Pierre-Emerick Aubemeyang wearing that mask to protect a jaw injured in a home invasion suffered less than a week earlier in Spain. Yet what will alarm the giant consortium of money that now owns Chelsea is just how mediocre their great collections of big names looked against some comparatively less famous players in the home blue shirts.
'Indeed, if Chelsea's new principal co-owner Todd Boehly runs those names through his scouting database, he will find that the likes of Josip Misic, Bruno Petkovic and Robert Ljubicic are valued at considerably less than those whom he has bought this summer. This was Dinamo's night, but it also said something about Chelsea too.'
The Guardian
'This wasn't exactly how Thomas Tuchel would have imagined his 100th match as Chelsea manager. In the competition where he found such success just 17 months ago in the final against Manchester City, the German was powerless to stop Dinamo Zagreb from recording a famous victory courtesy of Miroslav Orsic's well-taken goal.
'With their owner Todd Boehly watching on from the stands, Chelsea were outclassed in almost every department. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang endured a debut to forget after his deadline-day move from Barcelona, mustering a grand total of no shots on target from his 59 minutes on the pitch. It wasn't much better for Tuchel, who was uncharacteristically haphazard with his tactics throughout and even deployed Raheem Sterling in central midfield for a large part of the second half. For the first time since he succeeded Frank Lampard, Chelsea have lost three consecutive away games, and their problems are mounting.
'Tuchel's response to the fortunate victory over West Ham on Saturday was to hand Kepa Arrizabalaga his first appearance of the season in place of Édouard Mendy. While César Azpilicueta, Ben Chilwell, Mason Mount and Kai Havertz were all restored to the starting line-up. It had been nearly five years since Aubameyang's last appearance in this competition while he was still at Borussia Dortmund, with his new manager saying the 33-year-old was "hungry to play for us" despite suffering a broken jaw at the end of last month in Barcelona. Sporting a black facemask that was made to measure by a specialist company in Milan, Aubameyang surprisingly passed up his first opportunity to shoot in the seventh minute after being played in by Kai Havertz. He then failed to make the most of a Havertz cross that flashed across the face of goal moments later.
'But despite their home being badly damaged by an earthquake in March 2020 that meant the attendance was restricted to just 22,000 here, Dinamo's supporters were soon given an opportunity to find their voices. Chelsea's high defensive line deep in the opposition's half was always going to be a risky approach and it was Bruno Petkovic's clever header from a Robert Ljubicic pass that presented Orsic with clear open space. Wesley Fofana had ground to make up, but the way the Croatia forward outmuscled and then sped away from the £70m signing from Leicester will have concerned Tuchel. It could have got even better for Dinamo had Arijan Ademi's volley from outside the box not been parried away to safety by Arrizabalaga just past the half-hour mark.'
The Sun
Not even Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang's space-age face mask could cover up an abject Chelsea performance.
The £12 million striker's debut was overshadowed by the worst performance yet this season which saw boss Thomas Tuchel in bother with the referee again as his frustrations boiled over.
Aubameyang, 33, was thrown in from the start wearing a bespoke carbon fibre face covering to protect the broken jaw he suffered in a raid on his house in Spain just eight days ago.
It was meant to give Chelsea a lift, but a disastrous all round performance and a tactical disaster show by Tuchel summed up a miserable opening night in the Champions League.
The Metro
Chelsea's marquee summer signing Wesley Fofana has been criticised for his role in Dinamo Zagreb's shock 1-0 win over the Blues in Tuesday night's Champions League opener.
While manager Thomas Tuchel did not want to single out any individuals afterwards, BT Sport pundits Owen Hargreaves, Joleon Lescott and Rio Ferdinand all felt Fofana was at fault for the goal and showed a surprising lack of pace.
'They bought Fofana for exactly this reason, to squeeze the pitch, play high, he can [track] runs in behind, and he's quick,' said Hargreaves.
'But he didn't look overly explosive in that one, and I think Tuchel will be worried that they're conceding soft goals when they're dominating games.'
Lescott chimed in: 'Thiago Silva doesn't allow that to happen. He doesn't get himself in a race. He sits five or 10 yards deeper, allowing that to come onto him, and then delays the attack.'
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