The problem today was the same as it has been for most of the season - lack of game management, and that comes down to the midfield. We don't control games anymore. Even in the last 30 today when we rallied Chelsea were still pretty much in control - they held us at arms length and played us on the break. There's a lack of tactical nous and maturitty in the team, mainly in centre-mid, but also throughout the team. Lucas can counterbalance that to a certain extent but he needs help. Our priority this summer should be be find a top quality central midfielder who can play alongside Lucas but also cover for him if he is out for whatever reason. That should be our main focus ahead of a striker of wide player - I'd be happy for us to blow our entire transfer budget if it meant gettiing a top class midfielder is.
Ultimately Chelsea were better than us today because they were stronger tactically - they didn't even play that well to be honest if we're looking simply at the quality of the performances, but their players all knew what they should be doing at different moments in the game, how to behave when they lost possession, what to do in the transitions; they were efficient with the ball and maximised their opportunities at the right moments. We, on tthe other hand, played far too reactively - there was a lack of antincipation both in our defensive play and our attacking play and that's a real problem for next season. We've got a lot of good assets in the squad, but we need to maximise those assets - a quality centre mid alongside help him both control and direct the play in both an attacking and defensive sense would go a long way to solving some of those problems..