Another shocker against Arsenal - Will Barcelona regret Christensen deal?

Martin Macdonald

• Updated: 23 May 2023 08:55 CDT
• 4 min read

For the second time this month, Andreas Christensen is in the firing line.

On Wednesday evening, the Denmark centre-back made a shocking error to gift Arsenal the lead in the big Premier League clash at Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea had dominated the early proceedings when Christensen disastrously underhit a back-pass.

This allowed Eddie Nketiah to race through on goal and bury his finish past Edouard Mendy to put Arsenal in the lead after just 13 minutes.

Timo Werner equalised only four minutes later for Chelsea but it was too late for Christensen to repair his reputation.

Just a matter of weeks ago, he also had a shocker in Chelsea's Champions League quarter-final first-leg home defeat against Real Madrid.

The Blues fans, players and Thomas Tuchel had to witness a masterclass from Karim Benzema, as the Frenchman scored a superb hat-trick to hand Real Madrid the 3-1 away victory. This result would prove decisive as Madrid would eventually go through 5-4 on aggregate.

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Christensen was run ragged in his right centre-half role by Vinicius Jr.

Vinicius was deployed in his usual position on the left of the front three, or left of a front two as Federico Valverde dropped into midfield.

The Brazilian would probably have been surprised to see that his opponent for the night would be Christensen, whom Tuchel opted to deploy on the right of the back three, with Reece James in the right wing-back position.

Unfortunately for the Dane, he was torn to shreds by Vinicius Jr, who targeted the space between Christensen and James for constant, dangerous runs in behind the back line.

It was via the left channel between these two players that he was able to assist the opener, and he should have scored himself before that, too, only for his attempt to cannon off the bar.

Tuchel admitted after the game that it was a mistake putting Christensen up against Vinicius Jr.

"Yeah, it's my mistake," Tuchel replied when asked about the space awarded to Vinicius by Christensen and James.

"We changed the formation and wanted to turn things around because I think personally there was enough where we could hurt them.

"But we were so far off our level in everything what the game demands, tactically, individually, in shape, in stiffness, in challenges that we tried to play in a new formation and then killed the game off with a big mistake after three minutes [in the second half]."

Christensen was substituted at half-time.

What does this mean for Barcelona?

Over the past 12 months, Barcelona have largely been shopping in the free agent market, with the exception of Ferran Torres, due to their financial situation.

One player out of contract this summer they are targeting is Christensen.

Barcelona president Joan Laporta has already effectively confirmed that the Dane, as well as Milan midfielder Franck Kessie, has signed.

He told RAC1: “We have signed a midfielder and a defender.”

The events of the Champions League game between Chelsea and Real Madrid - and the error versus Arsenal - should be a cause of concern for Barcelona.

Not only is he making elementary errors, but Christensen's inability to deal with Vinicius Jr - a player he will be facing on a more regular basis next season in La Liga and potentially in Europe - is not good.

Barca, of course, won't play with three at the back which means Christensen will be further away from Vinicius, but you wouldn't put it past the Brazilian to attempt to attach himself to the defender again.

Christensen is a good defender and is certainly an upgrade on the likes of Eric Garcia and Oscar Mingueza, but it's no surprise that Barcelona fans are a little concerned after watching his performances this month.