Tactics and Transfers: Post City and the 2nd Half of January

This match did show exactly what it is I have been saying for some time: Chelsea are nowhere near good enough to compete for the Premier League title.

The squad lacks talent, character, consistency in all frank honesty just simple athleticism. If Manchester City simply challenged Chelsea to a race and that was going to determine who would have won on Saturday they would have won that way too.

Chelsea needs someone to cover for Ben Chilwell. They need to make a decision in that department. If it’s going to be Kennedy that’s fine. He was fine in La Liga last season and the only reason he isn’t with us has more to do with off-the-field marketing issues than it does with anything else. At least he could match most wingers for pace for 90 minutes. Alonso simply cannot be allowed to start this many games anymore. It can’t happen. If there was ever a more obvious sign than Saturday’s match then I don’t know how we managed to get to miss it and get to this point. He’s been a good soldier truly, but at this point, it is glaring.

Odoi can be serviceable on the right but that does sacrifice the fact that he’s better in the front three. That said sacrifices have to be made and it would at least be understandable.

This match came at the exact wrong time for the Blues and that’s a shame. Chelsea’s first 11 in good health and proper fitness nick would have made a better run of it and would have been good enough to win. These days though Chelsea are a wounded beast and don’t have the legs to limp on much better than this against top-quality opponents.

Manchester City are too deep, too well drilled, and can rely on too deep a well of experience and chemistry from their time together to be beaten at the moment. Kyle Walker, Emerson, Kevin De Bruyne, and Raheem Sterling all have played over 200 matches for Pep Guardiola. Chelsea can only dream of that level of consistency.

They’re far out of our league and on our best days that isn’t as clear and we do stand a chance but they had one of their best days and we had one of our worst and the gulf in quality was honestly staggering. Discouraging is a good term too.

This article was originally supposed to be a study on possible center backs for Chelsea to add but the Manchester City match pushed that back further. That should be expected at a later date.

Best wishes dear reader.