Chelsea’s demolition by Manchester City casts further light on what has been obvious for some time: this squad’s midfield is woeful in the attack.
Another “enjoyable” episode of the 2020/21 Chelsea side was on display at the Bridge as the home team was completely dominated, decimated, and destroyed 3-1 by a clearly far superior Manchester City light blue-clad side. Led by former not-good-enough-for-Chelsea superstar Kevin De Bruyne, City dominated the Blues almost from start to finish (if you could watch that long).
The reason is now crystal clear after this one-sided affair. Chelsea’s midfield that started the game had almost no attacking impact whatsoever. That’s it in a nutshell. Not that any other parts of Chelsea’s game were effective because they weren’t.
Absent a glimpse here and there from Mason Mount, who was invisible himself, the starting midfield had little bearing in the attack. There is virtually no link-up play with the forwards. Criticism has been placed on Timo Werner for not scoring. How many opportunities did he even get to shoot? Almost none. The reason is there is no Ilkay Dundogan on the Blues who can break-up an attack and lead a counter up field with immediacy and aplomb. That player doesn’t exist at the moment on Chelsea. Or if he does (perhaps Billy Gilmour and Kai Havertz, both of whom came on too late but played well), he’s not been on the pitch enough.
Chelsea didn’t have a sniff at goal in the first half. It was a complete bulldozing of the Blues by a City side that mercifully didn’t even have to deploy Chelsea-wrecker Sergio Aguero. De Bruyne and Gundogan toyed with the Blues throughout the game. It was too easy for them. The only thing in doubt was how big the margin of victory would be.
The Chelsea midfield ostensibly had two directions for their passes most of the encounter, sideways and back. That’s essentially it. One play was demonstrative of the problem, as in about the 67′, Mount took a pass from Ben Chilwell and sprinted full bore down the sideline, unfortunately, it was back toward the Chelsea end not forward toward the City goal.
The midfield has provided almost no link up with the forwards at all in helping them break down the defense. It’s basically seven versus three, the three being Chelsea’s forwards in the attack. It was pointed out previously that Chelsea’s great early run of 17 without a loss could be an illusion until they beat top-of-the-table teams. It clearly was an illusion. They’ve only beaten one or two of those teams all-season-long. And now with the side seeing the better and the best teams, they are clearly woefully deficient.
In the January window that is now open, Chelsea must seriously reconsider the structure of its midfield of it is to have any chance whatsoever of earning a European spot. A Champions League qualification is beginning to look like a mirage for this squad. The Europa League may be the only possibility by the end of January. Chelsea is in a descending spiral and unless and until maybe two or three top, tough additions to this squad are added this month, it’s very likely to be a long, cold winter and a barren spring for the boys in Blue.
Chelsea management shelled out big coin over the summer and earlier to bring in top talent. They’ve yet to justify that allotment of resources. Yet, it seems clear that it is in the midfield that a key missing element (not the only one for certain) lies. They cannot or are not contributing to the attack and it’s as clear as day. It’s time for the Blues management to seriously consider a major alteration in the team’s midfield in January, and that may entail sales, perhaps of some surprising players to help finance incoming talent.
As a previous article indicated, this team needs an infusion of tough, talented additions and the first infusion of one or two of these players needs to be in midfield. In January. If not, batten down the hatches. It could be a long, bumpy sail toward the bottom half of the table.