Whatever happens next at Chelsea, it needs to be built around the youth

Chelsea has gone from heroes to zeroes in the space of one month. Whatever the club does going forward, it needs to be built around the youth core.

There are many reasons for Chelsea’s sudden reversal of form. Tactics, players out of form, fatigue, injuries and more have influenced proceedings for the Blues. Perhaps more important than anything is simple lack of motivation.

On some level, it is the manager’s job to motivate his players. On another level, if a Chelsea player needs motivation to turn up against Arsenal, maybe they are at the wrong club. That motivation should be a given. But there were other matches this month that went poorly due to a lack of motivation. Moments like that tend to show the club who is worth building around.

Regardless of which direction the club takes to see out the season and move forward from this bad run, there is a core of players that the Blues must build around. This core of players, even on the bad days personally and for the team in the past month, have not lacked heart. They fought for the shirt, as cliche and archaic as that may be. That core is primarily made of the Chelsea academy graduates with a few others that are earning honorary status.

None of this is to excuse the Manchester City match where the youth that started all played just as poorly as the rest of the team. But at the very least, they looked bothered by it. Mason Mount didn’t stop trying to fight an uphill battle where he was almost always outnumbered without support. Christian Pulisic, though not from the academy, also tried to make something happen up top when no one else would.

It is also hard not to look at a very out of form Timo Werner starting over the very in form Tammy Abraham and in form Olivier Giroud. Werner wasn’t the reason Chelsea lost, but the two other strikers surely need to be asking why they weren’t on the field. Abraham especially is never lacking for effort when he plays. Even when he is out of form, he still offers a great deal to the side.

The subs cannot be ignored for their impact, though it was too little too late. Callum Hudson-Odoi came on as he has in several matches now and made his presence known. At this point there is no more excuse not to play him as he always plays lights out in his limited time on the field.

All of this has been a running theme. When players in their prime started to phone in recent matches, the likes of Reece James, Ben Chilwell, Mason Mount, Tammy Abraham, Christian Pulisic, and Callum Hudson-Odoi fought on. Billy Gilmour, on the cusp of the first team again, showed similar care. Others, such as the aforementioned Werner and Kai Havertz can add themselves to that number yet.

If Frank Lampard remains the Chelsea manager (as he should at least for the rest of the season unless top four falls under serious threat), these are the players that will save his job. If Chelsea has to split with Lampard for any reason, anyone interviewed that doesn’t have this core as regular starters in their team needs to be shown the door.

Chelsea built their success off Petr Cech, Ashley Cole, John Terry, Frank Lampard, Michael Essien, and Didier Drogba. Only one of those actually came out of the Chelsea academy and the rest readily adopted what it meant. That mentality is nearly impossible to buy now but the Blues don’t need to. They already have over half a starting XI that is willing to play their heart out for this shirt. They need to be what Chelsea builds around, whether that is with Lampard (hopefully) or someone else.