Chelsea must guard against the dangers lurking in feel-good moments

Chelsea have become the Premier League’s feel-good story of the year, and the fans are right to embrace the moment. However, such positivity can lead a club astray if they lose sight of the work yet to be done.

Frank Lampard’s Chelsea opened the season with their worst Premier League start in the Roman Abramovich era, trailing leaders Liverpool by 10 points and being level on points with the likes of (the admittedly ambitious and well-drilled) Crystal Palace. It certainly does not feel like it, though, as the Chelsea community is relishing the sheer positivity of Lampard’s return.

Stylish, entertaining football coupled with the rise of academy talents have sent fans into fantasy land. Their wildest dreams are now becoming a reality. Yes, Tammy Abraham is leading the race for the continental golden boot.

The feel-good factor has also meant that all of Chelsea’s shortcomings are at least temporarily being ignored. Defensive susceptibility, failure of zonal marking and lack of rotation are issues that can have significant long term repercussions. The danger here is not the existence of these problems, but how long this “temporary” ignorance lasts.

For a reference point, look at the situation at Old Trafford.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s interim appointment lifted the spirits of the Red Devils back up after the negative last few months of Jose Mourinho’s reign. The United team played with freedom and consequently won matches for a brief period. The results, though, came more due to morale than Solskjaer’s tactics, something United casually ignored while appointing him on a permanent basis.

The result of that ignorance has seemed to shock fans, with United finishing last season sixth and currently 12th in the league, hitting rock bottom on the pitch. The writing was always on the wall. Bluntness in attack and a weak midfield are problems that were present under Mourinho and are still present under Solskjaer simply because he and the club haven’t done anything to fix it.

Chelsea was in a similar situation when Guus Hiddink took over from, you guessed it, Jose Mourinho on a temporary basis in 2015. The Chelsea board was not quite naïve as United’s. Chelsea would never appoint a manager solely because he temporarily boosts morale, because, at the end of the day, results are the biggest morale boosters. And results always come from planning and tactics.

The last game before the international break showed the discordance between fundamentals and results. Against Southampton, the likes of Kepa Arrizabalaga and Fikayo Tomori showed a shockingly lax attitude, giving away the ball in near suicidal positions time and again. The lapses in concentration by the defence and the keeper have been a recurring theme this season, among others. The Blues won 4-1, and that is a definite morale boost, but they must work to ensure many more results come, more reliably and against better teams.

It’s always a pleasure to be involved in a feel-good situation, but Chelsea and Lampard must ensure it does not come at the cost of ignoring real-time problems.