It would be foolish to allow that comeback, regardless of the excitement, to mask the horror that preceded it.
For 45 minutes Chelsea produced another defensive disasterclass and, despite clawing themselves back to parity in the dying embers, the lasting takeaway from their visit to The Hawthorns must be that for as long as they remain this sloppy no amount of attacking investment will see them become genuine title challengers.
All the ingredients were here: individual errors, a tactical muddle and that familiar flimsiness from set pieces.
No matter the system or personnel those issues have been ever present since Frank Lampard’s reign began 14 months ago and, for all the justified criticism dealt at the players, is it not time for the head coach to accept some of the failings rest with him?
If players lacking fitness – in pre-season mode as Lampard has put it more than once over the past fortnight – is still an issue, then why did Thiago Silva start when there were three other centre backs with more training under their belt?
Well, for leadership apparently. No one is disputing that the Brazil veteran is a serial winner who has played on the biggest stages but he was quick to realise that defending away to West Brom is a sight different to Nimes or Lorient in terms of timing and pressure.
The 35-year-old’s error for West Brom’s second goal was a lesson in concentration and, quite literally, taking your eye off the ball.
It was a mistake that would earn a feed of abuse from team-mates on Hackney Marshes. The only plausible reason can be that he was trying to think three moves ahead rather in the present but there can be no excuses.
Worse still was his reaction. Beforehand, speaking on Sky, Lampard said that Thiago Silva was wearing the captain’s armband because he leads “through his presence, his actions and how he is with people around him.”
With that in mind it was interesting to see that he stayed on one knee as the move unfolded. Not a typical action from such a supposed leader.
Yet Lampard, perhaps taking a different train of thought to his former boss Jose Mourinho in such situations, was quite supportive of the new signing afterwards.
“Thiago Silva is going to be fantastic for us,” Lampard said. “He has been incredible in his career and absolutely, I will not look at him. I can talk about the mistakes, they are clear and I am open and honest about that. We are a team but we have to react around that and, to be fair, the team did in the second half.
“But, there is nothing on Thiago, I am sure he will stand up and say it was a mistake. But other than that, I thought he was pretty faultless in the game. That’s his first Premier League game done and in the bank. We will get a lot more from him as well especially as he gets fitter and as the whole squad get fitter.”
It was horrendous but these things happen. It is harder to account for the other mistakes, those that have pre-dated Thiago Silva’s arrival but show no sign of stopping.
Before the former PSG defender’s Steven Gerrard moment, Marcos Alonso had a brain fade when heading what should have been a simple clearance straight at Matheus Pereira, who raced clear to allow Callum Robinson to score his first goal.
Why was the message not to get rid down the wings instead of trying to be too clever? Why did Cesar Azpilicueta not start in his place and why was Ben Chilwell not even in the squad? We’ve seen these types of mistakes from Alonso before.
Then there is the third, a collective and familiar failure as Chelsea fell to a simple, albeit well-worked, corner routine. Everyone was back but somehow Darnell Furlong was allowed to arrive unmarked to head on to Kyle Bartley, who was allowed a similar radius of space before finishing at the back post.
How can a team be so continuously inept when defending set pieces, seemingly unable to learn from previous mistakes?
The only explanation can come from the training pitches and such has been the regularity with which Chelsea have conceded from corners and wide free kicks, the blame must therefore lie with the coaching staff.
Even in the second half, just before Callum Hudson-Odoi made it 3-2, Cesar Azpilicueta was tasking with marking Bartley, who is six inches taller. The captain, for all his positives, is not the most dominant in size and yet he continues to mark the biggest opponents regularly. Remember Tomas Soucek for West Ham last season?
Again, it is something that ultimately rests with Lampard. At the end of a week in which he said that Petr Cech had been helping the goalkeepers on the training ground, maybe the time has arrived for him to draft in an old defensive team-mate to solve this mess.
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