Chelsea were about as good as supporters can expect them to be against Watford. It does show something of a bright side in what has been an overly dramatic and exhausting season.
Chelsea confirmed their position in the top-four, moving up to third and past Tottenham in the Premier League by beating Watford soundly on Sunday. The game put into perspective how strong a season this has been. In not just this column but on this site and in many places around the Chelsea media-sphere one could be forgiven for thinking Chelsea were in the same sort of mess as Manchester United, or even Huddersfield. You wouldn’t think they were in third behind a historically excellent top two and puttering along stably in their European competition. But that is the truth.
Chelsea seem to finally be playing, if not the most effective football in the world at all times, at least something that seems cohesive. Maurizio Sarri takes an infuriatingly long time to realize things and come to conclusions about his own squad. But at least he does come to the right ones, even if it took him a full season.
Ruben Loftus-Cheek is the best living example that there is hope to be had for Maurizio Sarri both in the real world and in his mind. Having spent a great deal of this season watching the truly terrible twosome of Ross Barkley and Mateo Kovacic sub in for one another time and time again, I hope I never have to see something like that again in my life.
Sarri coached Loftus-Cheek into a more complete player and has appreciated all of his changes. He now plays him properly and regularly. If Sarri has the ability to come around on things the way he did on Loftus-Cheek, then there is hope for him as a manager at Chelsea.
The issue this summer will be in Chelsea’s recruitment. No one is sure if the ban will be upheld. Even if it isn’t Chelsea don’t have a good record of buying players, nor do they have a technical director in place.
There are rumors Petr Cech will return at the end of the year, but that doesn’t necessarily bode well for the summer. Generally speaking a technical director would have been directing scouting missions, collecting data and match reports and sending out feelers for the summer transfer window already. Cech is a good choice, but the effect of his appointment likely won’t be felt immediately.
Many of the players who Chelsea are going to lose this summer with contracts expiring should simply be allowed to leave while Chelsea use this time to sort themselves out under Sarri. He has the team playing cohesively and has demonstrated he has the ability to apply what he is seeing. That’s a positive thing considering how he and the club looked at the beginning of the year.
Chelsea are now moving in a positive direction. They need to build on it in a way they typically refuse to do. The team is built on a series of flawed contract negotiations and will soon likely be losing its best player. They still might get a one-year transfer ban and they don’t have a worthwhile striker, although Gonzalo Higuain is looking better, but maybe too late.
A lot of things need to be sorted out and many things still don’t look great. But Chelsea might just not be as bad as we had thought they were before.
If Chelsea are really making substantial progress, smartening up to the necessity of former players and hiring a technical director, then the club will be moving in the right direction.