Francis Coquelin’s tackle on Mason Mount leaves Chelsea’s hopes damaged

STAMFORD BRIDGE — As he trudged from the turf, Mason Mount put his hands over his eyes as if desperately attempting to hold back the emotion.

The Chelsea crowd stood as one, out of respect and gratitude but also out of sympathy. No footballer escapes injury, but Mount’s face demonstrated his fear to Frank Lampard on the touchline.

The next two days will be spent with fingers and toes crossed for positive results from ankle scans. After a turgid, tepid evening at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea could do with the shot of good news.

Mount spent the build-up to his Champions League recalling his memories of watching Chelsea in this competition as a ballboy. His season to date has passed by in a dream sequence blur, a series of milestones passed at a quicker rate than even the most rampant optimism would allow. Now for the first true test of faith.

Mount can at least be buoyed by the knowledge that he will be missed. It says plenty about his increasing importance to Chelsea that his first-half substitution initially caused Frank Lampard’s team to suffer in his absence. In a midfield three with Mateo Kovacic and Jorginho, Mount is responsible for linking midfield and attack. Pedro, his replacement, stayed forward and thus caused the two to become separate. The result was a crowded final third with little service for them.

Mount will be a loss to Chelsea far beyond Tuesday evening too. He represents more than his own considerable ability, the representative of a new Stamford Bridge movement in which academy graduates are championed. Through little fault of their own, Pedro and Willian suddenly appear as yesterday’s men at a club trying to live in tomorrow’s world.

Club in turmoil

Valencia are a club at civil war, players and supporters equally disillusioned by the departure of manager Marcelino after only three games of the La Liga season. His departure was hardly a shock – quite the opposite after a public disagreement with owner Peter Lim over the club’s summer transfer business.

The accusation is that Singaporean owner is a distant owner who only intervenes to fix things that ain’t broken, and a club statement on the eve of the game did little to appease those few Valencians who made the trip to west London. Most of them had watched Valencia concede five goals to an under-strength Barcelona at the weekend; they never did that under Marcelino.

But if that gave Chelsea a chance to stamp some authority on their Champions League group, it was limply passed up. Not only was a first clean sheet of the season ruined by Rodrigo’s second-half finish, Chelsea failed to score in a Champions League home game for the first time since 2011. If that wasn’t enough, the game’s winner came less than two minutes after Lampard had moved Pedro to right wing-back and Cesar Azpilicueta into central defence. The tactical gamble backfired.

Chelsea’s worst performance under Lampard?

Valencia were more accomplished than their start to the season suggested. If Coquelin was fortunate to avoid a red card for his indentations on Mount’s ankle, former Arsenal teammate Gabriel was magnificent in central defence, probably the game’s best player. Rodrigo Moreno was one of the players rumoured to have been made available for transfer by Lim this summer, but his run past four Chelsea players was unchecked and allowed him to poke the ball past Kepa.

This was as poor as Chelsea have looked under Lampard. They overplayed it in the final third (Willian and Pedro), turned back too often when given the chance to push forward (Marcos Alonso) and regularly misplaced passes in the Valencia half (just about everyone in blue).

Questions over Barkley penalty

Tammy Abraham glanced a header wide and Chelsea forced the occasional penalty-box melee from set pieces, but there was precious little invention or intrigue until VAR awarded the type of handball penalty that the Champions League excels in. Cue Ross Barkley clipping the crossbar and creating another penalty taker debate at a Big Six club. Were Jorginho, Abraham or Willian not better options?

Lampard will – quite reasonably – say that no project that relies upon young players will be achieved in a straight line. There will be roadblocks and setbacks, and supporters must learn to treat both the same. They have a chance to make amends against Liverpool – also beaten in Europe – on Sunday.

But this was still a damaging night for Chelsea’s hopes of Champions League progress, even this early in the competition. Away trips to Lille and Amsterdam will now define the first European journey of Lampard’s managerial career.