The season has begun not with a bang but a whimper. An honest and true 4-0 defeat to Manchester United showed Chelsea very much where they stand.
Now before we get into it I know many of you are disappointed. How could you not be? 4-0 away to the great enemy is nothing to be proud of and certainly not something that goes down easy. That said ,this year is about one thing and one thing only: seeing who is worth their salt in this Blues side and who has the stomach for a fight. A good and honest fight done the old fashioned way. The way that Chelsea used to specialize in doing things.
This brings us, then, to our quick and promised point.
Good riddance, David Luiz.
There is a special place in my heart reserved for Thibaut Courtois. It will be hard for anyone I have ever known or will ever know to surpass the great deal of utter disappointment, dislike and genuine illness that even the utterance of that man’s name brings about in my stomach.
David Luiz comes close. To all those who defend him: This is a man who was simply told he wouldn’t be guaranteed a starting place. He was, though, a month earlier given a new contract that was an exception to Chelsea’s rule (though it is a stupid rule). Rather than show an ounce of gratitude he publicly started a fight with Frank Lampard, a friend of his, and demanded out to a direct rival. What does that say to – and about – you? Think carefully.
People like that you just don’t need in a fight. When the going is good he loves the attention and it’s all about “big game Luiz” with the “wonderful personality” and “what a geezer.” But when the going gets tough he is usually the FIRST person to throw his toys out of the pram. He shows a complete lack of character and Chelsea are better off without him because there is a lot of work to do.
Chelsea will suffer this season.
They are the worst of the big sides, by far. Chelsea have far less talent than Manchester City, Liverpool, Tottenham, Manchester United and even perhaps Arsenal, who did excellent business over the summer.
Coupled that with the fact Chelsea’s best player from last season left the club. The second best player, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, tore his Achilles. Then N’Golo Kante and Antonio Rudiger, two of the biggest cogs and leaders of the team are injured or returning to full health and you see just how poor things are.
If you thought any differently, you were sadly mistaken. I know many of my colleagues on this very site were as misled as you, but this is not going to be a good year. The only reason Chelsea were even passably, marginally better than actual s**t last season is because Eden Hazard is the third-best player in the world.
For too long Chelsea rode the fact that the third-best player in the world was a kind-hearted little Belgian man whose family enjoyed Surrey and was happy to have his children grow up learning English.
Then the club wasted that for far too long when they had an opportunity to build something special and decided that was the time to save money, chop and change managers and placate the idiotic mobs who know not a single thing about football, let alone how to run a football club.
Now Chelsea need to let Frank Lampard do his job. If you’re one of the teenage idiots who think this is somehow Frank Lampard’s fault, that on the first day of the season against a better side, with a weakened team on the precipice of ruin and just recently deserted by one of the false leaders whose colors finally shown, he should not have lost this match, you’re wrong and your opinion on footballing matters is not currency in the realm of reason or reality.
Things are only going to get worse for a full year. Know that. Let it sink in and accept it.
This is an opportunity. Frank Lampard is an inexperienced coach. He was shell-shocked on Sunday. There’s no denying that. We don’t know what his coaching identity will be yet or what this team will be.
Lampard and this team is a gamble, and one worth taking. If he and this young group of players can find their identities together, it will be the best thing to have ever happened to Chelsea Football Club and we will be on the verge of a new dawn. But that will not be for some time.
People need to temper their expectations and let him slowly turn this ship around. Things have not been run properly at Chelsea FC for almost a decade. That’s a lot of work to undo. In classic Chelsea sense, they’ve looked good and disguised it well, even won a few things, but eventually all that comes home when you’re a club of Chelsea’s size.
Chelsea don’t have the money to play fantasy football like Real Madrid or Barcelona. They need to be smarter. They’ve been immature and stupid and have run the club ridiculously for too long. That is oddly reflected in a great deal of the ChelsTwit fools who talk about the club on social media with their sandbox politics and opinions. Those are – oddly – an equally immature and stupid group.
All these chickens have come home to roost. Chelsea will need to deal with all of that before they can be anything like the club many of the current group fell in love with. It appears Manchester United are on their way. It’s time for Chelsea and everyone who supports the club to get on board the same way people have done at Old Trafford.
Just keep rowing together. That’s all it will take. Stay together, as one. Chelsea as one.