When Tammy Abraham left Chelsea to join Jose Mourinho in Rome, no one could foresee the cataclysmic impact that it would have on his former club. Whilst Abraham is busy furthering his career and scoring stats, the Blues have failed to score in the last two games. Further, Thomas Tuchel’s men have barely managed a shot on target in 180 minutes of football against Manchester City and Juventus.
Romelu Lukaku arrived in a blaze of glory and initially looked like he would make all the difference to a team bereft of a real striker for so long. However, the goals have quickly dried up and worse, goals have been conceded. Chelsea has let in a few goals while creating even fewer chances, a worrying equation to a team looking to replicate continental success this year. A closer look at those concessions highlights something more worrying than Lukaku’s barren spell though.
Chelsea is seemingly being punished by a plethora of religion-related figures early on in the 2021/22 campaign
After a great start to the season, the first goal against the Blues in the Premier League came via the boot of Mohamed Salah. Not unusual you could argue. The Egyptian winger is, after all, a goal machine. A pattern was beginning though. With that blip out of the way, wins over Aston Villa (x2), Arsenal and Zenit—scratch the St. Petersburg bit that doesn’t fit the narrative—followed.
Then came Manchester City, a tough opponent at the best of times. Chelsea was poor and it was Gabriel Jesus who grabbed the decisive goal. First Mohamed, then Jesus, surely that had to be more than coincidental. Could Chelsea’s decision to let not only Abraham go, but Victor Moses before him be affecting results? Are religious names casting a shadow over Tuchel’s attempts at grabbing more silverware this season or is this simply a poor attempt at comedic writing? That’s up for individual interpretation.
Next up, Chelsea travelled to Turin to face Juventus in the Champions League. There would unlikely be any religious references from a country considered to be the home of the Catholic church. Of course, that would be wrong. After another poor performance, it was Federico Chiesa who put the European Champions out of their misery. That’s Chiesa—which translates back into Church. These religious analogies would be funny were they not quite so damaging. It’s not just goals conceded that is a problem either. As a club, we’ve all but broken Christian Pulisic. So far this season he’s been infected by COVID-19 and followed that up with an ankle injury. Our crosses can be atrocious and for the doubting Tuchel’s amongst you, Saul was not bought in to scupper the Blues’ title chances.
Their next game is against Southampton. The Saints have a player—of course—named Mohamed (Elyounoussi) and Mohammed (Salisu), both potential starters for Ralph Hasenhuttl’s side—both equally capable of scoring. Of course, that couldn’t possibly happen . . . could it?
Will the religious curse seemingly impacting Chelsea continue or will the Blues break the spell? Let us know your thoughts in the comments or on Twitter!