Chelsea had spent an uncharacteristically very low amount on any new players of late- thanks to the 2019 transfer ban. Chelsea owner, Roman Abramovich changed that very quickly. He backed coach Lampard and spent over £220 million on several new faces to bolster their attacking front the club took in central defender and former Paris Saint-Germain leader, Thiago Silva on a free transfer as well as goalkeeper Edouard Mendy from Rennes.
For anybody keeping the score at home, that’s potentially more than half a lineup’s worth of new players for a team already decent enough to qualify for the Champions League and enter the FA Cup finals. It’s an investment that’s generally going to boost expectations.
All of Ziyech, Havertz and Werner are the attackers- who have bolstered the attacking option. The Blues were completed in the third position in the Premier League in goals scored but 11th in goals allowed, finding themselves with a Manchester City-like vulnerability to swift manoeuvres and counterattack.
Questions were coming regarding attackers about creating issues upfront? Questions were also coming up regarding the defensive department. The squad was looking like they didn’t have enough balance between the defensive line and attacking line. But after spending, expectations were in a hurry to come.
Chelsea’s First Spell
So far Chelsea has played three months. In all the competitions, they were able to win only three matches in their first nine matches. One of them is beating lower second division, Barnsley 6-0 in League Cup which hardly counts.
Mind you, they did suffer only one loss, that is, a 2-0 defeat to Liverpool too. They also got sucked in the 3-3 shootouts against both Southampton and West Brom, along with their defense displaying common vulnerability. Meanwhile, they were displaying no ambition against the biggest teams on the schedule.
The Blues bagged one combined goal against Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester United, and Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool and Sevilla (in the Champions League). Even, considering that other best teams were also lagging to find traction with the nonexistent offseason and a heavy fixture list, this was undeniably disappointing.
Chelsea’s Second Spell
However, during the month of October, Chelsea’s second spell started. They won all the matches since their defeat against Tottenham in the Carabao Cup. They smashed Rennes and Krasnodar by a blended 7-0 in the Champions League play and breezed through Sheffield United, Burnley and Newcastle United by a blended 9-1 in the Premier League.
On Tuesday, a return match against Rennes was quite less convincing, but a 2-1 win clinched advancement into the knockout rounds of UCL. That’s the 18th goal accomplished and two allowed in the six wins. A combination of the rough competition and further familiarity allowed Chelsea to discover their pattern and rack up a few points.
Now, Chelsea is in third place in the Premier League, just two points short of the prime position.
Overall
This season, Chelsea has been above average. Within the Premier League, the Blues are fifth in shots per possession and are nearly seeming quite powerful. Across tons of main leagues, you can see that the West London club is solidly reasonable in the backline as well. On the whole, the offense has been quite fine and the defence has been very nice. Only that doesn’t explain the entire story.
On the offence, they are good in pretty particular ways, pretty impressive on defence and nearly perfectly average from a difficulty standpoint. Chelsea is a very good team with almost no definitive personality whatsoever.
Flexibility can be a tremendous thing, but when it is the time to win a big match against a great team, you will have to understand who you are and what your major strength. It is not clear at all if Chelsea and Frank Lampard are at that point.
If the recent improvement of Chelsea has quite more to do with themselves than their lesser opponents, then maybe we are going to see a less cautious and more confident team when the opponents will explode back up on the schedule. This very matter will be recognized when they will take on Tottenham, who are in a red-hot form previously after beating Manchester City.
