Chelsea needs improvement from top to bottom at the club

The 2022/23 season will represent the first for Chelsea under its new ownership group, headed by American Todd Boehly and Co. There is now just a matter of days remaining before the Blues’ first Premier League match of the new campaign, where they will travel to Goodison Park to play Everton. However, the preparation for the domestic campaign has been underwhelming for the reigning Club World Cup Champions thus far. The excitement of most supporters soon turned into disappointment during Chelsea’s preseason tour of the United States.

The tour started with a scrappy win over Mexican giant Club America in Las Vegas following a Mason Mount wonder goal. Chelsea looked a bit sloppy in that match, but that was to be expected seeing as it was the team’s first preseason clash. The victory was followed by a penalty shootout defeat to MLS side Charlotte FC in the Queen City before the Blues were thrashed by London rival, Arsenal, in Orlando. Social media posts from the club and players gave off the impression that they enjoyed the tour, but on the field where it matters, the issues of last season still exist.

Chelsea needs to rebuild from the ground up right now if it wants to compete

Toward the back end of last season, gifting goals to the opposition had become a staple in Chelsea’s matches. If the three preseason games to date are any indication, it looks as if things have not changed much in that regard. The first goal the Blues conceded on the tour against Club America was a nearly laughable own goal. Charlotte’s goal stemmed from a very lazy penalty giveaway and Arsenal’s first goal came off from a Trevoh Chalobah loose pass. An aimless ball from Edouard Mendy resulted in the Gunners’ second goal, and the third and fourth came from some terrible defending and marking by Chelsea’s back line.

On the opposite side of the pitch, things are even more undesirable. Michy Batshuayi—who has been sent on loan by every one of the Blues’ managers to date, including Thomas Tuchel—is back to starting preseason fixtures. His last loan spell saw him scoring just four goals in 33 matches in the Turkish League. Similar to Batshuayi, there are other senior players who in the team right now because no other club wants to offer them the salary that Chelsea is currently offering them. Young players such as Levi Colwill, Billy Gilmour and Harvey Vale are essentially being ignored in order to give minutes to those players right now. Additionally, the Blues have to deal with players like Timo Werner, who complain about getting less game time while failing to show why he deserves to be given minutes by Tuchel. Furthermore, there are players like Callum Hudson-Odoi, who are the same players they were when they burst onto the scene in west London.

Meanwhile, on the board level, Chelsea bizarrely has been trying to convince players who already had pre-agreements with other clubs to join the Blues. If the recent reports from Fabrizio Romano are to be trusted, the club was looking to hijack Paris Saint-Germain’s deal for RB Leipzig’s Nordi Mukiele. The Blues offered up Werner as a bargaining chip in the discussions, which didn’t make it far before Mukiele’s deal was confirmed by the Italian transfer guru.

Both Manchester City and Liverpool had an extremely tight battle at the top of the Premier League last season and both of them have added new, young, class strikers to their sides. Chelsea witnessed just how much of an improvement Arsenal has made over this summer, and that doesn’t even begin to touch on what Spurs have done either. Under its new manager, Manchester United is having a promising preseason itself. This leaves the Blues lagging behind the pack already and the season is just two weeks away.

Some fans have already written Chelsea’s season off. On the other hand, some supporters are yet to accept the results and they have justified the poor results by claiming it’s just preseason. Not many would have forgotten how the Blues’ first fixture turned out last time around with Frank Lampard’s Toffees downing a struggling Chelsea side. Things will have to improve drastically in each department for the Blues. If not, Chelsea could potentially kiss its top four hopes goodbye early in the upcoming campaign.

Where do you think the Blues need to improve? Let us know your thoughts and suggestions in the comments or on Twitter!