The perfect storm of injuries, absences, and loss of form for Chelsea

It was seemingly all going so well for Chelsea until it very much wasn’t. Manchester City was a big wake up call, though the issues seen against Pep Guardiola’s team weren’t necessarily new. The issues have been piling up since the last international break and now, ahead of Juventus, Chelsea is facing a perfect storm.

First, there are the injuries. The academy banner waivers Mason Mount and Reece James are both currently injured. Christian Pulisic is also among those injured as he is still recovering from a knock last international break. The Blues can certainly survive without those three, but it starts to tighten things up with selection.

Next is the big absence. N’Golo Kante has Covid-19, a pretty big concern for him specifically given his family history and his own concerns about the virus way back when this whole thing began. Kante coming out of this healthy is paramount to everything else. But Covid is tricky. Simply getting over it often times isn’t the end of it. Kai Havertz fought the virus for far longer than he actually had it last season. Others have had Covid and come away as they were. There is simply no telling until Kante’s quarantine ends.

So that is four players missing, three of whom are surely starters and one that occasionally is a starter. This is why Chelsea has such a big, deep squad full of players capable of playing several positions, right? All of that is true, but that brings up the third catch: just how many players are out of form.

Form is a tricky thing to gauge, especially when the team has been doing so well on paper until Manchester City. The reality since the last break, however, has been Chelsea struggling and just about pulling through. Scorelines against Villa (the first time) and Spurs flattered. Zenit was a pretty accurate representation of how the Blues did. Beating Villa on penalties with a rotated squad isn’t the end of the world. And then City was a rough match. The Blues have been getting by more than they have been getting ahead.

All of this comes as a perfect storm ahead of the Juventus and Southampton matches. After that is an international break, but that was the source of Chelsea’s issues this time. Out of form players suddenly having to go off and start a whole new routine for two weeks before coming back is not going to make things any better. Those injured will likely (hopefully) stay back and that will give them a platform to build on. Many of the players Tuchel will now have to rely on will also stay back as they are well out of their national team picture. But it’s going to be a very tricky time to navigate for Tuchel.

If the League Cup match was any indication, Tuchel has other formations up his sleeve when he has to change players up. 3-5-2 will likely go on the back burner until Mount returns. 3-4-3 can stay for now though some spots will be a bit light. It seems unlikely that 4-3-3 gets a run out because it’ll run into the issues of both 3-5-2 and 3-4-3 with team selection. 4-4-2 is possible, but with Romelu Lukaku and Timo Werner as the only strikers, Tuchel may prefer something that doesn’t require both.

It’s a tricky period for the club now. If the Blues can navigate everything, they’ll come out with a solid foothold this season. But many managers have seen things implode under similar circumstances. This will be a big test of Tuchel and his squad, unlike any that has come up before.