Sheffield United 1-2 Chelsea: Blues claim third win in a row as Jorginho spares Rudiger’s blushes

The destiny of the title might seem increasingly certain but when a side as inconsistent and frequently flawed as Manchester United sit second, everything else is up for grabs. Chelsea could be the beneficiaries.

The manner of their third successive win in four undefeated games under Thomas Tuchel will not send waves of fear through the nation but the side look less baffled under new management and imbued with some kind of purpose. Where on earth the Timo Werner who so recently set the continent alight has vanished to remains a mystery but at least he no longer looks like a striker stuck on the wing. That’s what Frank Lampard had turned him into.

The points were in play until the bitter end, when a Billy Sharpe free kick was clawed away from Edouard Mendy, but Chelsea rise to fifth place, with winnable matches against Newcastle and Southampton to come before Manchester United travel to Stamford Bridge for the first real test of what Tuchel has brought, at the end of the month. Tuchel was satisfied. 

Jorginho (right) celebrates after restoring Chelsea’s lead from the penalty spot midway through the second half 

The midfielder converted his spot-kick coolly after it had been awarded by the video assistant referee

Jorginho sent goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale the wrong way to score what would ultimately prove to be the winning goal

The Italy international (centre) is congratulated by his team-mates after scoring his sixth goal of the season

The sub-zero environment, with an easterly wind whipping through the place, was about as inhospitable as it gets and initially a bleak reminder to Tuchel of the size of the challenge he faces.

The German is not a dramatic touchline presence. He observes more than he speaks. When Reece James’ positioning could have been better in the first half, it was Mateo Kovacic who took him through the finer details during a break in play. There were times in a first half which Chelsea dominated without creating much end product when the Tuchel methodology seemed to amount to more than letting Kovacic and Jorginho, his two gloved playmakers, dictate the ebb and flow.

They were the two who provided the only ambient heat on this most bitter night – gesticulating, shifting the ball and running with it to find space. Further up the field, the final Chelsea ball in the first half was often poor. There was no-one in the six-yard box when it reached there. Olivier Giroud’s deployment did not work in any material way. Chris Wilder’s side, still fighting like their lives depended on it, offered little way through.

Chelsea have spent money to be better than this and the club’s fervent hope is certainly that Tuchel will find a way to coax out of Werner qualities that Frank Lampard never found. Ralf Rangnick, who coached and mentored Werner at RB Leipzig, is close to Tuchel. Perhaps that will create a way through.

The evidence of an immediate such impact on the 24-yer-old was not emphatic, yet there were some glimmers of light. Tuchel found a different form of deployment for him – operating with Mason Mount in pockets of space behind Giroud.

English midfielder Mason Mount (centre) broke the deadlock with a crisp finish shortly before the half-time break 

Mount watches on as his strike makes its way past goalkeeper Ramsdale and into the bottom corner of the goal

The Englishman wheels away in celebration after opening the scoring in the Peremier League clash on Sunday evening 

There were occasions when the challenge seemed too much for him. Werner looked no physical match for Max Lowe and Kean Bryan when they stood in his way. But his speed of thought was evident early in the game, when he ran onto a ball Kovacic had clipped over the top for him and lifted it over the oncoming David Ramsdale. It took an excellent recovery run from Chris Basham to hook the ball clear.

Basham was booked for the challenge he made to prevent Werner bursting past him and it made little sense that the German switched to the right flank, where he made little progress. It was back down the left, late in the first half, where he provided more evidence that the combination with Kovacic, Chelsea’s best player by a distance might yield a dividend in the weeks ahead.

After an exchange of passes with Kovacic, Werner advanced in the left channel to take a ball that Ben Chilwell arced into space for him and, instinctively sensing Mason Mount’s presence to his right, weighted a pass which the Englishman drove home to send Chelsea ahead.

Chelsea’s defence looks the vulnerable part of this edifice. It left Tuchel shaking his head several times in the first half, no least when Basham was free to take down a diagonal ball in the area and shape to shoot. He was brought to ground and would have won a penalty ad he not been offside.

Sheffield United drew level when Antonio Rudiger (left) inadvertently put the ball into his own net

Goalkeeper Edouard Mendy can only watch as Rudiger’s attempted back-pass goes past him and into the goal 

It was a moment of comedy defending which allowed Wilder’s side back into the game early in the second half, when Ol McBurnie was allowed to run through 1f5 yards to the Chelsea box and try to play on paetner Oli Burke. Antonio Rudiger, trying to tidy, slipped the ball past his own goalkeeper. But of more concern to Tuchel would be the sight of John Fleck, driving through four Chelsea players to reach Mendy.

It was to Chelsea’s benefit that the home side matched their own defensive inepitiude when Bryan’s weaek back-pass, minutes after the equaliser, allowed Werner to race in. Ramsdale would have escaped with bringing the German down, were it not for an intervention to restore a fraction of VAR’s tattered credibility this weekend. The penalty was awarded and Jorginho jinked it in right footed.

‘Every manager is different,’ Werner reflected in the aftermath. ‘He give us a lot of idea and now I play on the left and can play behind the striker or a 10 behind me, that is very good for me and the last wins were also a good move from the manager.’

Scroll down to see how it all unfolded with Sportsmail’s live runner.