“Pulled back by Azpilicueta and in! Michy Batshuayi the unlikely hero and Chelsea are eight minutes from glory.”
Nearly six years on from the title winning moment against West Bromwich Albion in the 2016/17 season, whilst success has remained in domestic cup and European competitions, Chelsea have been dropping further and further away from the pace setters in the Premier League.
Now in the midst of unprecedented levels of turnover at the club, the Blues find themselves at their lowest point in their quest to taste Premier League success again.
The Roman Abramovich era was typified by his ‘hire and fire’ nature with managers and it was a working formula for success. 21 trophies were won between 2003-2022 as Chelsea won every major piece of silverware they competed for under him. However, a more alarming number is 13 managers across those 19 years. Each manager lasting on average 1.46 years and the effect of different managers coming and going and bringing in players they desired at the time has hamstrung the man currently at the helm of the ‘world’s hardest job in football’.
Prior to the January transfer window, the squad featured players from five managers preceding Graham Potter. One player remained from both Roberto Di Matteo’s and Antonio Conte’s times at the club in Cesar Azpilicueta and N’golo Kante. The rest was made up of signings/academy products that came through under Maurizio Sarri, Frank Lampard and Thomas Tuchel.
Now add in the new arrivals and the squad consists of players from six managers. For example Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City squad is entirely made up of players signed under his stewardship whilst Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool squad is equally made up of his signings except for Jordan Henderson. Both of those clubs in the past few years have been the ones to catch in the Premier League. Also, they have won the last five titles since Chelsea’s last success between them, albeit City have won four of those, highlighting the effect of long term stability.
New beginnings
That idea of stability is something Chelsea’s new owner Todd Boehly is trying to enact on a club that has acted the opposite for a couple of decades. His patience and support of Potter is being tested, someone the club forked out a lot of money to bring him and his staff from Brighton. The Englishman was viewed as the long term appointment. However, his well-publicised ability did nothing to prepare him for the chaos of Chelsea Football Club.
Things started smoothly with nine games unbeaten. Then an injury crisis struck at the worst time. A World Cup break followed. Before the struggles continued into the new year as an influx of new faces arrived in West London. Bright flashes from them could do little to prevent the slide to 10th as things turned sour amongst the fanbase.
Undoubtedly some limitations in the manager’s abilities have been present as he’s searched for the perfect formula and patterns of play that served him well in his early days have disappeared.
But the old saying ‘too many cooks spoils the broth” rings true when you look at the Chelsea squad. Having over 30 first teamers and trying to organise effective training sessions from that is near impossible. Amongst those players you have individuals who were signed to fit different systems, the obvious negative effect of Abramovich’s hire and fire approach with Chelsea managers.
Guardiola and Klopp all have players they’ve specifically targeted which allows them to play the system they wish and maximise the strengths of their players. Whilst Chelsea’s squad is something more akin to someone going to the cinema and randomly choosing things from the pick and mix such has been the scattered recruitment in past years.
Key areas of the squad neglected
When you consider the large sums of money Chelsea have spent, it is even more mind blowing with the areas of the pitch, they’ve consistently ignored. Ever since Nemanja Matic departed for pastures new in the summer of 2017, the squad has been crying out for a replacement holding midfielder. You look at Liverpool and Manchester City and they have/had Fabinho, Fernandinho and Rodri filling that role whilst the impact of Casemiro on Manchester United this season has been staggering.
During Lampard’s time in charge, there was interest in Declan Rice and that has continued over the years but mounted to nothing. Equally the signing of Enzo Fernandez aside, the Blues haven’t signed a midfielder permanently since Kovacic’s arrival pre transfer ban.
The gaping hole in front of the defence may well be eased by the soon to return Kante but even his infectious energy can do little to easing the headache as Potter tries to shuffle his cards to find the perfect combination.
Areas that don’t look like being solved anytime soon is the lack of leaders in the ranks and the ever constant goalscoring woes. In past successful teams they had the likes of Didier Drogba, Lampard and John Terry, all who exuded leadership. A damming indictment of the current squad was seen on Sunday as it felt like the white flag was waved as soon as Oliver Skipp scored.
Chelsea have fallen behind 12 times this season and only on three of those occasions have they avoided defeat. This has been a nagging issue for several seasons now as they fell behind in 11 league matches last season and only claimed nine points and the season before saw them claim 11 from 14 occasions.
The irony isn’t lost on the fans that as fires burn across the club, the desperate need for some fire to be channelled in the right way on the field is lacking.
An area where there is barely a puff of smoke is in the goalscoring department. One goal across the whole of February and since November, Forest Green Rovers, who sit bottom of League One, have scored nine more goals than Chelsea. The position has been a story of failure and fans have been led to believe that the number nine shirt is cursed and the only one to buck that trend in recent times was Tammy Abraham.
You can have all the creative players in the world but if someone isn’t there to put the chances away, it is a waste of time. Since that title winning season in 2016/17 only on two occasions has a player scored at least 15 league goals in a season.
The slide to their current home of 10th has been a gradual but painful one and it is hard to see how it is stopped before the summer. Where hopefully the manager, whoever that may be come June, has a full pre season with the squad and is given the resources and freedom to trim the squad and tailor it to achieve on pitch results that Boehly and co desires.
Only then may Chelsea snap out of this nightmare and wake up to the challenge that awaits them in achieving the dream of Premier League glory.
Written & edited by Harrison Burridge (@hburridge2)
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