Chelsea drew in a boring match with West Ham on Sunday. The trip back down to planet earth really shouldn’t have been at all surprising.
One of the worries I have had with Maurizio Sarri’s early time at Chelsea is how, yes, the Blues do maintain possession and play very deep in the opponent’s half, but no, it does not produce the results the team need to win. Very often it appears to be empty possession, with the Blues getting fairly little out of their dominance until some individual brilliance changes the game. Chelsea did almost exactly the same under both Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte.
Chelsea are passing more and breaking more obscure records than under the previous two, but they’ve been no less reliant on that one spectacular moment to drag them out of the doldrums. In the end, the actual overall creativity of the team doesn’t seem to have changed that much. That’s been slightly worrying.
West Ham were intelligent against Chelsea on Sunday and played a strong game. Without a recognized striker they played with simply more midfielders on the pitch. The mobility and athleticism of those players made it hard for Chelsea to build in the way they have done so far this season.
Chelsea have not been truly challenged as such this season and this was a worrying sight. West Ham are not a good club. They have a proud history, wonderful support and a few top-notch players, but they haven’t put all their talent together in a comprehensive way yet. Chelsea should have won this match – they simply have more quality on the team than their opponents.
The Blues still seem to play to about 75% of their capacity when they get pushed a little bit. Sarri’s system will work at some point, but the players need to show more character than this. The system and style of play are irrelevant if they simply stop playing when they face challenges.
Willian was poor and Eden Hazard was very well managed by Pablo Zabaleta. The game also made apparent how bad Chelsea’s striker problem really is. Neither Olivier Giroud nor Alvaro Morata made enough of an impact. Chelsea won’t be good enough to win the title if they remain reliant on either of them.
Another worrying thing has been how much the system negates the wonder that is N’Golo Kante. It’s peculiar that a player who is so obviously the best in the world at something (he did help propel his country to a World Cup victory from that very position) is being played in a position that ultimately nullifies him. I understand Jorginho’s role is important, but is there no way Sarri can tweak his system to get more out of Kante? Surely he can tailor a tactical method to actually get the best out of his players.
Chelsea’s midfield still looks like one of the most brittle parts of the team. Peculiarly, despite the midfield not looking perfect, Maurizio Sarri hasn’t made many changes to adapt it to something slightly better. N’Golo Kante used to dominate midfield on his own. Would that not have been helpful against West Ham? If nothing else it would have freed up Ross Barkley to get further forward.
Chelsea are still a far way from who they can and will be. It’s going to be an interesting year and the Blues have done a good job so far. Sixteen points from six games is a very strong record for a team that is rebuilding. It would have been nice for Chelsea to beat West Ham and give themselves a bit of a break for the match against Liverpool, but it’s by no means a bad situation yet.
Chelsea have their first real test against a stronger team when they face Liverpool. Their competition to date simply hasn’t been very good, so Chelsea haven’t been punished even though they have often been mediocre. To compete at the top of table they’ll need to do more with their possession than simply accrue meaningless passing statistics. The midfield is going to have to offer at least a shred of creativity, and one of the strikers is going to have to become a goalscorer.
Chelsea are still an unfinished product and perhaps for the first time this season they came out with a result that will actually force people to be honest. They’re not there yet. They’re getting better. But the flaws are obvious.
Liverpool will expose those within seconds, so all Chelsea supporters should be hoping Maurizio Sarri has a plan to fix things soon.