Tactics and Transfers: Shame on you, Chelsea

Chelsea lost to Sheffield United and the Blues brought themselves back to the realm of realism with one of the worst performances under Frank Lampard to date.

Despite the fact that Chelsea started off the match against Sheffield United in third place, the Blues’ performance showed a team determined to disguise themselves as relegation strugglers. Regardless of the efforts of the ever lovable and honorable AFC Bournemouth, Chelsea doesn’t deserve to stay in the top four. On Saturday, despite not needing to contend with the raucous magnificence of Sheffield’s support or even anything other than ideal playing conditions, the Blues put in the most objectively terrible performance that they have displayed under Frank Lampard.

This year, Chelsea’s results have flattered to the point of ultimate deception. That’s why mentioning the fact that the Blues began the weekend’s round of play in third place was so important. They have struggled to both finish and defend (both!) and yet somehow managed to climb their way up the table to be mentioned in the same breath as sides like Manchester City and Liverpool—two sides that they shouldn’t even be looking at. A huge factor in this has been the failures of their competition rather than their own successes, as evidenced by Leicester’s ability to turn gold into dirt on Sunday.

The truth is, this sort of failure isn’t something that can be accepted, certainly not by a side with as lofty and high-minded goals as Chelsea seems to have for the next several years. There are people in the world struggling to find work, to feed their families and keep a roof over their children’s heads and given that Chelsea is so global, one could venture to guess many of those people are Chelsea supporters. The fact that this group is PAID to play this game—and that’s how it performed—is an insulting shame.

Oddly, the only player who the match was able to really reflect on with any sort of positivity was one who didn’t play. How truly important must N’Golo Kante be as a player if this is what happens when he isn’t played in central midfield? When he is, Chelsea manages to win games by the handful. When he isn’t, the Blues are smashed 3-0 and it’s a flattering scoreline at that. Kante is as important to Chelsea it appears as water is to mankind and the warmth of the sun to our universe. He is the living, beating, smiling and heroic human version of life-saving heart surgery, it appears.

It is astonishing to say this because my emotions on the man have come full circle several times in the past year, but it may be time to lay off Kepa Arrizablaga. He wasn’t great, no goalkeeper can be declared Man of the Match in a game where his side concedes three goals—except for Jerzy Dudek—and that match was perhaps THE one-off of all football matches.

He did make one fantastic reflex save though. The sort of thing that can’t be taught and is indicative of his class, only to be left out on an island by his defenders yet again. How not a single of the four of them was within a yard of the attacker when he scored all while keeping him onside and being wrong-footed and thus, instinctively not even close to a reparative defensive position while it happened, I truly don’t know. In my entire life, I have never seen anything like it.

It does leave one to think if the Blues defended as if they simply knew the rules of football, or had the instincts of the men, women and children who play it, would we be perhaps talking about Arrizabalaga as the second coming of Lev Yashin? Such was the state of the defending on Saturday and in all honesty, for the past two seasons.

Perhaps just in the name of controlling variables, the Basque keeper should be given more time.

Kurt Zouma still appears to be the best one and Cesar Azpilicueta seems simply out of ideas and as if his personal soldier-like sense of duty is being tested. Neither Antonio Rudiger or Andreas Christensen will even be sellable at this point. Christensen is doing his best to represent everything detractors suggest is wrong with ‘white collar’ football academies. Rudiger, though his spirit is valuable and his connections in German football valid, even set up the third goal himself with the single worst clearance possibly ever.

The midfield, I won’t waste time writing about beyond this because they spent even less time playing football on Saturday.

Finally, the attack. Some days it doesn’t come off for you. The defender doesn’t buy the shoulder drop, the ball bounces off the shin as opposed to the instep and shots curve out as opposed to in. All of that is true, but there’s no excusing the simple lack of effort. If nothing comes off then pure graft works. It was evidenced by Christian Pulisic’s goal against City for instance. Simple running has benefits in football and they didn’t even do that.

I don’t want to discuss Tammy Abraham because I quite like him. I have often referred to him in passing as a prince, but if I continue beyond this, I shall say something unkind and ungenerous—I don’t want to. The truth is that I feel as disappointed as if my eldest son and heir had been arrested for something that wasn’t even funny.

In life, excellence is more often about the dedication, resilience and consistency of character one can call upon than the natural talent one is born with. Of course, it helps to be talented, but the old adage that “hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard” was the only thing to describe Chelsea on Saturday.

Sheffield played a damn fine football match. The Blades and their manager should be praised beyond belief. Chelsea, on the other hand, failed to show them even the respect of colleagues pursuing the world’s greatest game at the highest level.

This disappointment won’t fade this season and Lampard suggested that he would not forget, neither will a great deal of the Chelsea support. This surely showed that, despite the rose-tinted hue the team has given off since the restart, its truest identity is far from excellent. A great deal of work is required, not just on the squad, but on the character of those who remain a part of it. Every single one should be questioned about that very fact. Shame on them.