Marco Palestra had a disaster first 45 minutes as a Chelsea player at left back against Manchester United.

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Wesley Fofana got a huge amount of criticism for his errors in the first half against Manchester United today. And deservedly so.

But it should be clear that a lot of the times he was being put under individual pressure because of mistakes by Marco Palestra at left back. We have all been looking forward to the summer signing’s first Premier League start after having seen his impressive performances. But those first 45 minutes were a disaster.

Palestra panics under the bright lights

The Italian is more comfortable as a wing back, and perhaps we will see an improvement if he’s pushed forward a bit to where he’s more used to playing, with less defensive responsibility. It’s also of course fair to point out it’s his debut, and he deserves a few more starts to find his feet in this league.

But if he’s going to play like he did in that first half, those starts won’t be coming anytime soon. Right now Xabi Alonso must be eager to get Pep Chavarria back on the pitch. The Spaniard is on the bench after injury, and we would imagine he’s a guaranteed starter next time out.

In other news…

Chelsea are playing a shocker against Man U in the first half, and one player in particular is getting a lot of blame.

We said we would get some answers abut certain players in this game – and we certainly have. We’re not sure we like what we’ve found out.