It seems only just yesterday that I was still celebrating my team’s 5th top flight championship after a season where they looked unbeatable. This season, as our earlier podcasts indicated, i really expected more of the same, although I knew it would be harder as other teams would get better and stronger.
However I was not prepared for the start of the season we have had this year, nor the depths to which my team, the current champions of England, could sink too.
Chelsea FC is currently 15th after 11 matches, below even newly promoted Watford, and already 10 points below 4th place and 14 points behind first place Manchester City. Things are not looking good, and bar the conspiracy theory nutbars (which I will get to later) it all really is Chelsea’s own fault.
Last weekends game vs Liverpool (who are also having a poor season) was a prime example. Early on Chelsea looked good, defenders were closing down the red’s attack and our own attackers were causing havoc and even manager to create a wonderful goal that just made the Reds defenders look static and hopelessly lost. Then the rot started again, Chelsea defenders backed off and gave attackers space, tackles missed and attacking flair withered and dying. All of Liverpool’s 3 goals were a result of Chelsea’s defenders just giving them too much space to work in. Coutinho had yards of space to pick his spot for both of his goals (and yes both included wonderful turns and movement to create that space, but still.) In the end the defending has just not been good enough, and whilst it has shown sparks of life the attack has been without flair or adventure.
Then there is the conspiracy theory; that the FA is out to get Chelsea and as such we get refed differently; no penalties awarded, easier free kicks against, opposition given lighter warnings, and so on. Whilst this is all poppycock there were incidents in the Chelsea v Liverpool game which give credence to this theory. Liverpool’s first goal came well into the 3rd minute of the 2 minutes of injury time; and I remember thinking to myself as I watched the game that it seemed like the ref was letting the half go on until Liverpool scored. The Reds were hot on attack and Chelsea was repulsing wave after wave of the Red attack, before finally Coutinho made a wonderful little jink and found the space to bend a shot into the far corner past Begovic.
However (bar the official wording of at least 3 minutes of extra time) halftime should have been called by then – there had been no major incident since the stoppage time board had been raised and as such there was no real reason to add the time on. Sure Liverpool scored twice more, but the second half would have been a completely different game had Chelsea gone into the Sheds 1-0 ahead instead of 1-1.
The second incident was a non-yellow card to Liverpool’s Brazilian midfielder, Lucas, who was not booked for a challenge that looked suspiciously similar to a foul committed by Mikel and Lucas not 5 minutes earlier, both of which earned yellow cards.
The Liverpool midfielder had committed a series of bad tackles throughout the game, which had earned him a warning from the ref and then a yellow before just getting a 2nd talking to for his 5th and worst and not the expected 2nd yellow. Mikel had not put a foot wrong in any of his tackling all game until the one which earned him a yellow card; in fact no other Chelsea player earned a yellow card at all, despite several for Liverpool’s players (which may be telling in its own right.) This was when the score was still 1-1, and whilst Liverpool scored two more (and Lucas was not decisive in either) that may not have happened with 9 outfield players on the field, add that to the fact the first goal probably shouldn’t have been allowed to happen and the result is completely different.
This of course ignores the fact that Costa probably should have also been shown a straight red card for a blatant kick on Skrtel which was completely missed by the ref – although that could just be chalked up to one of those things, as replays do show that the ref was blinded by other players to that incident (which is possibly why Costa decided to have a kick just then anyway.) Also it wasn’t like Skrtel was completely innocent, as he had given Costa an elbow in the first half that also went unnoticed (although was only really a yellow card offense.)
All in all, the result was the way it was because of poor Chelsea form, Liverpool taking their chances when they came and applying good pressure, and a couple of bad mistakes from the ref which also allows the conspiracy theories to keep circulating for another week.
I am not sure what is needed to be done to fix Chelsea, as they seem to be broken at some fundamental level, but without any main cause. We have a squad similar to last year with some additions that only make it better, but we are failing to look anything like that team of only 7 months ago. The defenders have forgotten how to defend and the attackers how to attack. We have let in 22 goals and scored only 16, which is the first time in a long time that Chelsea have had a negative goal difference. Also last year we only conceded 32 goals in the premier league for the whole season; this year we don’t look like we will score that many goals.
Some blame the coach, but to my mind who can we replace Jose with? Who out there is better? Pep Guardiola will be available at the end of the season, but that doesn’t help now and word on the internet is that he doesn’t want to come to the Premier League anyway. Ancelotti is available, but given he was sacked last time he was at Chelsea straight after winning the Premier League, I don’t think he will be in a hurry to come running back – even for an interim role. Klopp would have also been a good fit, but he went to Liverpool.
Jose Mourinho is the only realistic choice and he has the skills and ability to turn the team around and us fans of The Blues just have have faith.
In Jose We Trust
NineSixFourTwo 