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Wesley Fofana was almost the villain for Chelsea over the weekend in their 2-0 win against Manchester United.
Before their two goals, Fofana made two horrifying errors in the first half. Fortunately for him, he managed to recover and ended up having a really good game.
However, it does not look like Chelsea supporters completely forgot about his mistakes or his shocking display at Anfield last week. The defender gave away a penalty against Liverpool in the Carabao Cup before missing his own spot-kick during the penalty shoot-out, which resulted in the Blues’ elimination from the competition.
According to Jacob Steinberg of The Guardian, there is now a real lack of patience with Fofana at Stamford Bridge. The Matthew Harding Stand, in particular, was really having a go at him during the United game, the journalist has revealed.
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Speaking on the Chelsea Press Room Podcast, Steinberg said: “It’s a ground at the moment that is very quick to grow irritable and anxious and in some cases quite angry. Fofana had such a poor first half and it feels like he’s a real kind of hate figure for the fans at the moment. There was a real lack of patience with him. The more those mistakes came in, the more he was getting it.
“Even actually the third and final one for where he lets in [Amad] Diallo, where Diallo puts it over even though if you look at it, you look at the replay, the reason Diallo puts it over is because Fofana gets a slight, slight touch on the ball just before he shoots. But even then he’s still getting it from the Matthew Harding Stand.”
Chelsea fans online have also not been convinced by Fofana, but they could have to get used to seeing him in the starting line-up. Maxence Lacroix is injured and may not be back until 2027.
Chelsea now look quite light in the centre-back position. Jorrel Hato has been playing as a left wing-back and left-back this season, but the Dutchman can also start in central defence and would have been an option there on Saturday if he had not been injured too.
Was Fofana really that bad on Saturday? After his two mistakes, not really. Statistically, he did quite well overall.
In total, the Frenchman made eight defensive actions. Romeo Lavia was the only Chelsea player to record more, according to Sofascore.
Breaking that down, Fofana made five interceptions, more than any other Chelsea player, two clearances and one block in the Premier League encounter. Yes, the 25-year-old made those two errors, but he also won Chelsea their penalty, which Cole Palmer just about managed to convert.
In possession, Fofana completed 67 out of 76 passes, which gave him a pass success rate of 88%, and one successful dribble. Put it this way, we have seen Fofana have worse games.