It was all meant to be so easy wasn’t it? Runaway champions was what was being hyped up at the start of the season. The New Invincibles wasn’t it? Ah good days, halcyon days. What’s that? Still 5 points clear? Game in hand? We’re top of the league, we’re top of the league!
We were sitting pretty. We were passing pretty. We were scoring sort of pretty (sorry Diego mate). What happened?
Free-scoring Chelsea steamrollered through the first few weeks of the season. Diego Costa hit the ground running and finished practically everything that was laid before him by the equally irresistible Cesc Fabregas and Eden Hazard show around him. Nemanja Matic was the foundations in front of the back four that kept our unit tightly-knit, compact and powerful; the man who should be the face of condoms due to his 100% protection they/a guy on Twitter said. Behind the Serbian condom we had John Terry looking more empowering than ever before. Azpilicueta continued where he left off with dependable performances and we had a new young hot-shot beanpole in goal whose catches we could drool over whilst he drooled over a former Chelsea player’s ex-girlfriend. It was nice. It was fun. Runaway champions. That was the plan.
We headed into 2015 with one defeat in all competitions so far and averaging 2.3 goals per game (one for all you stat lovers out there). Then it all went a bit dodgy after that New Year’s Day that none of us talk about. Can’t even remember what happened that day to be honest.
Sure, the reaction to that unmentionable day was strong. A quick dispatch of Watford in England’s least important cup competition was a nice reaction, as were the subsequent victories firstly against Newcastle at home and then the butchering of the only swans you’re legally allowed to butcher in the UK 5-0. After that though, not so great. Getting battered at Anfield and robbing them of a draw was the start of it before 2015’s FA Cup Winners, as well as being general footballing royalty, Bradford City came and bounced back from the 2 goal deficit as you’d expect from a world class outfit like the Bantams. A nice little nail bitter victory in the second leg against Liverpool was an important result to set-up for the visit of the champions in the season’s most underwhelming fixture to date.
2.31 goals on average in 2014. Compare that to 1.86 on average so far in 2015. Take out the Swansea result and it is 1.61 goals per game (stat lovers must be having a field day here).
The tailing off of Diego Costa’s goalscoring form has coincided with the ban that really helped to properly kick start that weird, is it serious or is it not “Campaign Against Chelsea” which people bought into for some reason. Whoever was running the Chelsea FC social media team was obviously highly aggravated by this and posted about 18 tweets or something ridiculous like that following the Burnley game. What started as a throwaway, distracting post match comment to disguise from a poor performance eventually led to Jose Mourinho tearing into Chris Kamara and Ben Shepherd on Goals on Sunday for 38 minutes and a Twitter campaign detailing all sorts of screenshots from iffy decisions. All of this furore helped to hide the fact that Diego Costa has – whisper it quietly – no goals since the Swansea rout for Costa – Walker’s OG in the final helped to create that unwanted stat. As Diego’s goals have dried up, the rest of the teams has also. Only Eden Hazard and Branislav Ivanovic – or the ‘Big Bum Brigade’ as they’re known by literally no one – have really been there to try and carry that infamous Chelsea goal-scoring burden that helped to weigh down Fernando Torres for all those years. This is not to say that Costa has been poor – he really hasn’t been – but the goals just aren’t there at the minute and the sooner we get him firing again it can only mean good news.
Ivanovic celebrates being Chelsea’s most clinical attacking threat in 2015
The other man who has certainly seen a dip in form since the turn of the year is Diego Costa’s Spanish compatriot: Cesc Fabregas. Before going into the season I had laughed in the face of those who talked about The Great Cesc Disappearing Act. It was a hotly anticipated even that began at the January of every year. Rubbish, I thought. Somehow though, wherever he’s been, Fabregas’ effectiveness on games seems to always diminish at the turn of the year, and well, I suppose you could say it has here. The problem here lies in the exceptionally high standards he set early on this season – when the rest of the team were all on song around him – and the fact that recently he’s well, not been at that level.
It is a peculiar midfield predicament that we have found ourselves in anyway. Our preferred two midfielders don’t ever start the big games as the defensive midfield duo, which means we never really play our best eleven against the best teams. Oscar is usually the man sacrificed here – another man prone to a post-January disappearance – but his energy and work-rate are then lost in the middle. So in comes Ramires or Mikel to add that midfield stability and defensive nous so that we don’t get overran. Our midfield then appears weaker and we seem to be far less effective at the incisive possession game and quick transitions which were the driving force of our early season form. Being unable to name Cesc and Nemanja together in midfield consistently in recent months has perhaps also been a factor as to why progress has slowed, for which Nemanja Matic not having his leg broken so he could hunt down Ashley Barnes and knock him over are responsible for this.
You thought the niggling midfield moaning from me ended there did you? Think again.
We sold social media starlet Andre Schurrle and loaned out The Egyptian Messi in January after basically not being good enough. Schurrle’s inconsistency grew very frustrating over the 18 months he was here, and Salah never really looked at home, or even good enough to play, at Chelsea, and frankly I had no qualms about either of them leaving. They had to do what was best for their careers, Schurrle brought us in a tidy bit of money and I wished them well.
However, after seeing our strategy of two attacking midfielders leaving and replaced with one implemented for the 2nd January transfer window in a row, I have to say, the parallels were very similar. Salah has had a very De Bruyne at Wolfsburg impact at Fiorentina since he’s arrived and Schurrle has done a respectable job at Wolfsburg, much like Mata did at the start of his United career. Cuadrado since joining has been very Mohamed Salah and appears to be our new master of the dribble, dribble then pass to a member of the opposition move that the Egyptian Messi had made his trademark in blue. Whilst yes, it’s early days, and perhaps he needs time to adapt and all that but I’m really struggling to see what Cuadrado offers us that Schurrle or Salah didn’t, other than of course those strange dreadlocks, and a commendable trophy:games ratio at Chelsea.
Mo Salah has scored 6 goals since his move to Fiorentina – a deal that saw Juan Cuadrado move to Chelsea. #SSNHQ pic.twitter.com/Ic89puQNsP
— Sky Sports News HQ (@SkySportsNewsHQ) March 6, 2015
At 26 years young and costing us nearly £30m, forgive me but I expected more from Juan Cuadrado. My YouTube scouting mission had me excited. A direct runner, a good crosser and a goalscorer. 7 minutes of YouTube video with shoddy dubstep in the background and strange video effects had convinced me of this. Sadly, I was conned, much like it would seem the people in charge of Chelsea player recruitment were. I just really hope he starts to prove me wrong because unlike most of the recent attacking midfield signings, Cuadrado is a few years older and doesn’t seem to have a potentially high re-sale value (which is what football is all about these days, innit Mike Ashley?) unless he starts to deliver for us. He showed at the World Cup how dangerous he can be and showed at Fiorentina in the past exactly the same so hopefully it can somehow translate over into some Premier League form. Injury to Willian or Hazard or Oscar would see him presumably get a run of games, and well if that happens, let’s just hope he proves me wrong.
I suppose it has come to the point now though where it’s time to get optimistic. 11 Premier League games left to go and 5 points clear. Whilst we stalled, City seemingly slipped into reverse and our advantage remains healthy, and with 4 of the top 8 to play before the end of the season, dare I say the run looks reasonable?
Other reasons for optimism come in the shape of our glorious young prodigy Kurt Happy Zouma who has looked exceptionally mature, assured and comfortable whenever he’s played in the league this season. Whilst I’m not sold on Kurt in midfield, Kurt in defence is something I’m hugely in favour of, especially with Gary Cahill’s form taking a slide following his head injury sustained against Spurs at Stamford Bridge. His blossoming bromance with fellow Frenchman Loic Remy has also made for entertaining viewing, particularly as this is perhaps more important than any performances on the pitch. Hopefully Kurt’s into the first team fold will give belief to those fellow young’uns like the highly-hyped Ruben Loftus-Cheek who Mourinho said would be part of the first team fold next year. I’ll believe that when I see it.
Oh yeah, and I nearly forgot, we won the Capital One Cup, the most important English cup competition, particularly in comparison to that FA Cup or whatever it’s called that no one cares about. ‘Since Arsenal Last Won A Trophy’ we have won a trophy and they haven’t which is always nice, even if they have a player in Mesut Ozil who can jog about like no other mere mortal can. Hopefully this first piece of silverware for many of these players at Chelsea is enough to spur them on to much greater things and this much needed lift can help to inspire us across the finishing line in May. One league title in about 7 years is appalling for a club that has ruined football like we have and whilst that remains the priority, I certainly wouldn’t mind giving PSG a bit of a beating on Wednesday. They’ve hit their best form whilst we have hit some of our worst form so it should be interesting, particularly without The Demba Ba Superstar. Some English team has got to deliver the goods in Europe though, I guess.
For now, the priority remains just beating whoever is laid out in front of us. Our destiny rests very much in our own hands (and indeed feet in the case of those who don’t play in goal). Our defenders have carried us through a tough spell but hopefully the Wembley day out can inspire us to start making the right sort of headlines, as opposed the unwanted ones thanks to the vile and frankly disgusting passengers on trains in Paris and from London to Manchester. If we are to win the title at Stamford Bridge in May, I certainly hope none of those racist fans aren’t there to witness it because like Mourinho said, these people are not Chelsea.
A treble of competitions containing the lexeme “league” would be nice, but seems unlikely, and I certainly wouldn’t complain if we ONLY won the league and league cup. It’s certainly time to click back into gear and keep ourselves grounded again. City can chase down a points deficit as well as anyone – despite recent evidence to the contrary – so it is important to win, win and then win, with a side order of not losing. Getting Costa scoring again would be nice. Getting Fabregas to that assists record would also be pretty damn sweet. Heck, even getting Petr Cech to that clean sheet record would be decent as well but you know what’d be even better? Our high levels of performance back and a league title to show for it. Yeah, I’d like that. Set it all up nicely for when Leo joins in the summer, did you know he follows us on Instagram? Done deal I’d say.
Huw Saunders
Latest posts by Huw Saunders (see all)
- We Are The Champions, The Champions of England - May 4, 2015
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