Paul Scholes slates Chelsea: Great teams don’t fail to beat ten men

The Blues’ exit from Europe’s elite club competition on Wednesday evening as they failed to overcome PSG, who played 90 minutes with ten men, is a stark reminder of how far Jose Mourinho’s side are from being a great team, according to Paul Scholes.

Following a battling 1-1 draw with the Ligue 1 side at the Parc des Princes a fortnight earlier, Chelsea came unstuck against Laurent Blanc’s men at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday, twice squandering the lead despite Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s red card after half an hour.

Gary Cahill and Eden Hazard found the back of the net for the Premier League side, but Mourinho’s men struggled to carve out any real clear opportunities – something of which former Manchester United midfielder Scholes believes is an indication that they are not at the same standard as Europe’s elite.

"In the build-up to the first leg against Paris Saint-Germain last month, Jose Mourinho said that his Chelsea side could already be considered 'a great team', a remark that struck me at the time as premature, to say the least," Scholes wrote in his London Evening Standard column.

"Great teams do not play away in Europe and create just one goal-scoring chance in the course of a game, as Chelsea did in Paris. And great teams certainly do not fail to beat opponents reduced to 10 men at home, as Chelsea did on Wednesday.

"Even down to 10 men, PSG carried on creating chances, like the one in the second half that ended with Edinson Cavani hitting the post. That's what the top teams do, even away from home.

"Chelsea's failure to create chances in Paris, and then again this week, shows how far they have to go to be considered among the very best in Europe."