For Antonio Conte, the evenings trip to Carrow Road in the oldest national football competition in the world, the FA Cup, it was a case of rotation. The Italian made nine changes from the team that drew with Arsenal in midweek.
Most notably, the game saw a return to the starting XI for David Luiz. The Brazilian who is believed to want a move away from Stamford Bridge following a tactical disagreement with Conte, had a chance to prove he wanted to stay. It was his first start since the Champions League game with Qarabag towards the end of November.
After a storming game with Arsenal, in which the game ebbed and flowed for the full ninety minutes at breakneck speed, this game was almost certain to be played at a much more relaxed pace.
Once the game kicked off there was no real urgency from either team, either through lack of belief or lack of motivation. Antonio Conte had sent out what was effectively a second string side. With the squads clubs have these days, it`s difficult to call a team full of international players, second string, and if they weren`t, they certainly played like it.
With so many changes, Conte`s team were like a bunch of strangers who`d nipped out for kick about. They may as well have been on the beach at Great Yarmouth. It was a game that lacked anything. Norwich showed little quality, Chelsea none. The first half past by at the speed of a snail, slithering up a slope made of soap.
The first half was only brightened by this clip of Diego Costa hitting my Twitter timeline,
WATCH: It was typical Diego Costa on his first start for Atletico Madrid since returning!
He scored the home side’s second of the match before being given his marching orders…🙈
Harsh from the referee? 🔴
More: https://t.co/0cv7K9jlLz pic.twitter.com/n6JEmKLMeb
? Sky Sports Football (@SkyFootball) January 6, 2018
Back to the game. Chelsea had not one shot on target in the first half, and half time came as a blessed relief.
Half time Norwich City 0-0 Chelsea
Antonio Conte must have also been unimpressed with the dire first half and injected a shot of Red Bull into the half time oranges. Chelsea had their first effort, that actually caused the Norwich keeper any real concern with 50 minutes on the clock.
With the pace of the game upped, a bit, both sides looked a bit better, it was still jumpers for goalposts stuff though. Willy Caballero caused some excitement when he came charging out of his box to sweep up a bouncing through ball and nearly misjudged the path of the ball before heading clear.
So poor was the game, as Chelsea turned into a bunch of Stoke City wannabe`s. Danny Drinkwater for one, appeared to want an early bath as the tackles went flying in. Were Norwich not such bad finishers, another Willy Caballero mistake that saw a weak punch go three yards to a Norwich player, whose well off target shot, was deflected away.
Chelsea were still having very little offensive impact, Kenedy was replaced by Charly Musonda Jr. and Michy Batshuayi, proving once again why Chelsea need another striker, was replaced by his superior, Alvaro Morata. Then this appeared on my timeline,
Chelsea have done 8 good things in the entire game and all 8 of them were Willian. Yet some nerd is going to make a compilation of the times he lost the ball.
? Will Faulks (@willfaulks) January 6, 2018
With Morata on, Conte was hoping Chelsea avoided a replay, so was the rest of the stadium. Conte`s final change was to replace Pedro with Dujon Sterling. It made no difference. It was a poor team performance that has added another fixture into Chelsea`s already hectic fixture list.
Two good things came out of the game. The Chelsea board will hopefully go into the market for a new striker, at the very least and Willy Caballero kept his first Chelsea clean sheet. As for the rest, as Antonio Conte would say, they were sheet.
Next up for Chelsea is the visit of Arsenal in the Carabao Cup semi-final at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday ko 8pm.
Full Time Norwich City 0-0 Chelsea