Chelsea pulled out of their suffering lull in time to enjoy rivals hitting theirs

Chelsea came out of a brief patch of productive suffering to enjoy all things Frank Lampard and watching some of their rivals hit new lows.

As Chelsea fans, we have suffered during the last couple of seasons. We’ve suffered with the ball under Maurizio Sarri and without the ball during Antonio Conte’s second season in charge. In typical Chelsea style, though, both of those campaigns ended with silverware in the trophy cabinet.

We’re just a few games into the current campaign and the transition from the Azzurri to Frank Lampard’s Blues is nothing short of phenomenal.

For years Chelsea’s academy has been seen as a way to bankroll run-of-the-mill, mediocre £35 million players through the sale of kids who have passed through the system but are not deemed good enough to step up to the senior squad. Had someone, be it manager, owner or the real power broker Marina Granovskaia been brave enough to risk missing out on trophies for the future good of the club, Cobham could have delivered years ago.

We’re finally seeing all that hard work come to fruition now as coaches and players have been allowed to progress through the system in a way that other clubs will surely covet. Just a few games into the season and we’re seeing some traditional rivals struggle to click as a team despite having a degree a continuity from last season.

Manchester United, like Chelsea, elected to install a former player as their manager midway through last season. Ole Gunnar Solksjaer has failed to build on an initial honeymoon period with a squad of players that would appear to not be good enough but lacking motivation.

We’ve seen that at Chelsea, but it’s difficult to oust a group of highly paid individuals over the man in charge of them.

United have had their share of success, though, so a little downtime for them is nice to see. It shows, though, what an incredible manager Sir Alex Ferguson was and how difficult success is to replicate consistently. With just eight games gone in the Premier League, United have just two victories to their name and sit in 12th place.

There’s obviously a long way to go, but the season looks like being a long one for United fans.

If the honeymoon period is over for OGS then poor old Mauricio Pochettino at Tottenham is suffering the five year itch.

The club have still not won anything under his control. Tottenham’s style of play during that time has been fawned over by a sycophantic media whilst Chelsea won trophies without style and didn’t we know it. So far this season, Pochettino, like OGS, has appeared unable to galvanize the players. Individually good, collectively shambolic.

Tottenham’s eight Premier League games have seen them win just three and they sit in eighth place, ominous signs for a club that generally start well and finish poorly. We can be fairly certain that neither manager would have lasted more than two seasons at Chelsea with success being pigeonholed differently over at Stamford Bridge.

That’s not to say it won’t go south at Chelsea, but for now we’re on the ride of lives. Potentially, this could be Chelsea’s greatest period of football. For all the suffering, we’ve also seen Jose Mourinho’s backs-to-the-wall, win at all costs mentality and loved it. We’ve seen Carlo Ancelotti’s fast-moving, free-flowing attack-fest and still cherish it. However, the best may be yet to come under Lampard’s stewardship.

As for United and Tottenham, well, let’s hope they continue to suffer with the ball, without the ball and most definitely without any silverware.