2020SL1 MD12 #5 Atletico Madrid v #14 Chelsea

Super League MD12
MD12 - [5] ATLETICO MADRID V. [14] CHELSEA [4-0]
ALL TIME RECORD: ATLETICO MADRID 14G; 7W-5L-2D; 20-14 GF/GA
ATM - Luis Suarez [7] 7’
ATM - Marcos Llorente [3] 21’
ATM - Luis Suarez [8] 26’
ATM - Moussa Dembele [6] 33’
ATM - Joao Felix YC 70’
CHE - Timo Werner YC 90’+
After a nightmare start of 4 points through 9 matches, Chelsea have won consecutive games and lofted themselves out of the cellar and into 14th place, and while that is not something to normally celebrate, it is Chelsea’s highest mark since MD02.
Things at Atletico are not so happy, back in MD08 they throttled United 3-0 and stood in 3rd place, 3 games and 3 draws later, they have dropped to 5th. Their competition has been tough, City, Spurs, and last week, Liverpool, so the results are understandable, but they don’t do much for table positioning.
As the opening whistle sounded, Chelsea had no idea the blitzkrieg that was about to be sprung upon them. Luis Suarez scored first, in the 7th, a hard-nosed volley from short range, Marcos Llorente, really coming on as the 3rd option for Atletico, banged home his 3rd in the 21st, 5 minutes later, it was Suarez again, hitting his club-leading 8th of the year, and finally to close out the goals, Moussa Dembele connected in the 33rd.
4-0 Atletico just a bit past the half hour mark, Chelsea looked like deer in headlights, utterly incapable of a sustained attack and being made to look like a clown show on defense. Thankfully the bleeding stopped, not just for the duration of the half, but for the rest of the match. Much of this can be credited to Atletico, they did not abandon their attack, but without a sense of urgency to make it 5-0, things just did not materialize.
Chelsea meanwhile managed a couple shots on target in the 2nd half, courtesy of Christian Pulisic, but GK Jan Oblak easily denied them both. Some off-target attempts followed, Oblak was not the least perturbed and closed out the clean sheet.
A rather muted ending to the match with Atletico disinterested and Chelsea completely out of sorts, 4-0 seems fair, especially given it could have been worse. The win is practically a necessity at this point, with their peers enjoying substantial success, Atletico may find themselves still at 5th in the new table.
In any case, attrition is coming, we are just approaching the mid-point of the season, not everyone is going to keep winning, the crucible comes for all. Atletico look smart right now, whether they are still standing among the giants when crunch time comes along, remains to be seen however.
MD13: Atletico host Arsenal; Chelsea will try get back to winning at Lazio