Chelsea have played well for the majority of this season and deserve to be in fourth, but performances like the one at Everton were always going to happen.
The Blues were due for a performance like this. That’s not to say it should be accepted and Frank Lampard should’t give them a bit of the old hairdryer treatment, but it was going to happen at some point and it will again this year. Chelsea are a young team whose best players, N’Golo Kante aside, are a group of children. That means every once in a while they’re going to have a stinker.
Which is exactly what happened against Everton on Saturday. Chelsea fell into the trap against exactly the wrong sort of team to fall into one against. While Everton were whipped into just the frenzy one would expect from Duncan Ferguson, the Blues were as glass-jawed as you would be embarrassed to admit we know they are.
I’ve always liked Dominic Calvert-Lewin and he showed why on Saturday. He makes a complete menace of himself and works hard for the team. There’s no part of me that thinks there’s a sublime 20-goal-a-year striker hiding in him, but perhaps 15 goals a season in a player who contributes as much in defense as he does in attack, and takes the fight to weaker center backs very much the way his manager used to do? Yeah, and that’s exactly the sort of player Chelsea still struggle with.
There’s no two ways about it. The defense is an embarrassing mess. It seems no matter who is in the side, they are going to concede stupid and lazy goals while looking as disjointed as possible. They and Kepa Arrizabalaga made the sort of embarrassment for the third goal that needs no further explanation. They should address it at Cobham in front of their teammates and the coaching staff, explain it and apologize. No need to further address that pinnacle of nonsense here.
Chelsea are a young team that is annoyingly, in the most disappointing sense, susceptible to hard-nosed, rough and hard-working teams.
Duncan Ferguson managed them perfectly. A simple 4-4-2 with a proper fighting mentality is still one of the most decisive and effective formations in football, as Leicester showed when they won the title.
This dip in form will be the making of this group of lads. Now is the time to show they are professionals and not just a bunch of boys having the time of their lives. The transfer ban is gone and the hand holding will end quickly. This is Chelsea Football Club, after all.
The defense is where the majority of the money will need to be spent, and Ben Chillwell would be a welcome addition. As much as I am a fan of many of the defenders in Chelsea’s side, I’m more a fan of a well-organized defense that strangles attackers and opposition sides into dismay and leave La Tomatina with a clean sheet.
They should look for a proper old school Italian defender like Alessio Romagnoli to lead and teach them, and play in that troublesome left center back slot. Then build the defense out of there, perhaps even revisiting three at the back.
There are rumors as well that Erling Haaland has a minimum release clause of £17 million. If that’s true then the check should have been signed and presented on the way back from Switzerland. He and Tammy Abraham up front would be the sort of nightmare that could trouble even Franco Baresi and Paolo Maldini.
But the January transfer window is never the time for panicking. Doing so is a sign of weakness, and the only deals to be had are usually bad ones. Chelsea should hold fast and not overreact.
Frank Lampard should double down on the direction he’s heading and get a little more discipline into the side. Sometimes you will be beaten by a better side, sometimes the ball will bounce in exactly the wrong place and certain tricks and flicks will not come off. But the lack of effort, organization, commitment and blood and thunder has cost Chelsea recently. It did against West Ham and again it did against Everton – similar sides, pointing straight at a weakness in this team.
Lampard won’t be having any of it nor should he. These things happen but they are not overcome through acceptance.
It’s the winter and the hard yards and hard work need to be put in. The ban is rightly over and the veil of youthful ignorance is lifted. They should pull themselves up and pull themselves together, close ranks and win some matches the hard way.