Chelsea: Dumped unceremoniously into Champions League

Chelsea was dumped by Aston Villa 2-1 at Villa Park, but salvaged a top-four spot thanks to a come-from-behind win by Spurs of all teams. What can you say about a Chelsea side that does just about everything well (if not almost perfectly well) for maybe 35 minutes and still cannot break through into the twine and only finishes top four due to a huge assist from Spurs?

It was another ghastly loss. Almost no idea what to say here. The major gaffes by manager Thomas Tuchel by playing the wrong keeper in not one but two vital games two weeks ago cost Chelsea the FA Cup and very nearly qualification in the top four next season. This team had the life sucked out of it when Tuchel’s keeper choices totally disrupted the team’s chemistry and sent it into a downward spiral. The only remaining question is, can it recover by the May 29th Champions League final?

Chelsea was on the verge of a complete melt-down, disaster, and debacle of a season but thanks to their rescue by Spurs, at least has finished top-four. Yet, a loss to City next week will still signal two major cup losses in one season. That’s not exactly what Blues fans are looking for. What was almost unthinkable two weeks ago with a flying Blues side poised to beat any and all has now been turned inside out. Chelsea only emerges from this season with a top-four finish due to Spurs’ assistance against Leicester City.

The blame for Chelsea’s recent FA Cup loss, and general reversal of form lies squarely on the shoulders of Thomas Tuchel. He made his bed as they say, and was staring at possibly only Europa League play before Spur’s heroics.

While the Spurs win gets them where they needed to be in the League, Chelsea’s performance against Villa was anything but inspiring. It was not a pretty sight to behold. The Blues’ Champions League qualification hopes hung by a thread, a Spurs thread as it turned out, and they emerged top-four only after a losing contest and nail-biting watching of other games’ results.

The game against Villa was thoroughly dominated by Chelsea with no results until Bertrand Traore, another Chelsea outcast, scored to put the Blues squarely once again behind the eight-ball in the race with Liverpool and Leicester City for a top-four finish. Then a second-half penalty nearly finished their top-four hopes. A goal by Ben Chilwell who was Chelsea’s best player today did little to ameliorate the great debacle that could have been. Chelsea’s reversal in form falls back onto Tuchel’s abominably poor decision-making against Arsenal and then in the FA Cup final against Leicester City by keeping his best keeper on the bench. This move was cited as a gross error in judgment. The Blues were on track for a treble of sorts. There could have been an FA Cup win, a top-four finish, and why not beat City again in the biggest game of all?

One might say, well, that was two weeks ago and it has no bearing on now. I politely disagree 100 percent. When your team is flying, you don’t disrupt the flight path. You don’t overturn an apple cart full of ripe fruit and introduce one apple that might not fit and spoil the barrel. You don’t change a winning formula. You just don’t do it, no matter what outdated convention or tradition “dictates”.

As a former coach in another sport (ice hockey), it would have been absolutely inconceivable to play my second goal-tender in a big seasonal game or in a cup final, were there any cup for which to contend. It would have been totally and utterly unthinkable, unheard-of, and not even worth a second’s consideration. So how does a world-class manager of a top team like Chelsea with everything to gain fall into that so obvious trap? It’s was so utterly implausible that it almost defied description. Yet, it happened, and only with help did the Blues possibly escape missing out on the Champions League should their terrible form continue against City on May 29th.

Chelsea fans should be totally grateful to Spurs’, the big rival for twice coming from behind to torch Leicester City which was eliminated from Champions League participation as Liverpool joins the Manchesters and a very fortunate Chelsea in the cherished top four. There’s only one game left and it’s a massive one in that Champions League final. Two weeks ago, it was felt here that Chelsea could breeze through all their three remaining challenges and emerge with a massively victorious season. They’ve now by default achieved one and also lost one. If Mendy’s injury is serious and Kepa Arrizabalaga is in goal, a win in the Champions League final will be arduous and questionable.

Tuchel’s disruptive gaffes in the Arsenal and Leicester Cup games and a lack of clinical finishing have taken the air out of Chelsea’s balloon and left them depending on Spurs to bail them out of a possibly truly disastrous season, rather than racking up a spectacular one. No one on this team seems to be able to put a ball on the net consistently. When they actually do find the next, it’s usually dropped quite neatly right into the lap of whatever fortunate goalkeeper they happen to be up against. Yet, thankfully, serendipitously, the Blues’ have qualified for the Champions League with all its concomitant benefits. Yet, its performance today against Villa provides little confidence that they can make this a truly special season by dispatching City next week in the biggest match of all.

Chelsea escaped by the proverbial “skin of their teeth” today and qualified for the Champions League despite another pitiful showing against Villa. Should their lack of clinical finishing continue against City, there will be little hope of keeping the Manchester giants from a treble.

But hope springs eternal, as they say, and could the ultimate test, in the ultimate game be the game in which Chelsea finally brooms the “goal-line ghost” for good and breaks out with a four or five-goal performance? It’s in there, lying somewhere deep in the psyches of the men in blue. There is no doubt about that. But can Tuchel bring it out into the open, and beat City for all the marbles on May 29th, and bring that big cup to London again where it belongs?

It’s a daunting task, but it can be done. If it is, this will have been a season to remember for two really good reasons, not for all the negatives that would have eventuated if Spurs hadn’t beaten Leicester City and Chelsea then lost to City. We’ll see and know in less than a week. Will it be a really great season or just a top-four finish? That, as they say, is why they play the games.