Now that the once-every-four-years distraction that England’s hope to find new ways to confound the English has ended, we can get back down to the business of Chelsea Football Club.
Thomas Tuchel was right when he assessed the squad and said “we need Achraf Hakimi”. Everyone thought that he was mad. But Tuchel, as was usually the case with the genius whose madness was merely a matter of a moment than a state of being, was correct in his assessment. We sat around and thought that having the best right-back in the world meant that Hakimi was unnecessary. Though, the German saw the frailty of being so reliant on Reece James and that then compounded again should Chilwell be out as well, which is again the issue the Blues finds themselves with. As is the case with England, it should be said, whose fortunes pale through ironic comparison to Hakimi’s with Morocco.
CFC and the Three Lions have the best right and left backs in the world, although Chilwell gets more of a fight from Alphonso Davies than James gets from his nearest competitor. Without them, the veritable cliff which is as much a compliment to their quality as worry to their club is astounding.
Before James and Chilwell were injured against Juventus under Tuchel last year, Chelsea looked like they were not only going to run away with the title but buy it a bottle of champagne, some strawberries and tuck in, and be bored of it by early spring. Then the club ended up chasing fourth.
This season under Potter, and with defensive duo both rounding into form and James finally putting to bed this nonsense with Trent Alexander-Arnold, they went on a nine-game unbeaten streak where they trounced AC Milan both home and away and, at one point in a five-match period, had a goal difference of +11.
Then the former Leicester City man injured his hamstring and the CFC academy graduate did as well (showing the cost of the absurd fixture list to make way for Qatar in the first place) and that then killed off England’s chances and showed Chelsea exactly why Thomas the Terrific Tank Tuchel was so correct in the first place. The Blues lost three in a row in tepid, boring, spiritless fashion, choking and wheezing to the World Cup break like a boxer being saved by the referee’s bell.
Chelsea has brought in a backup for Ben Chilwell in Marc Cucurella. When the full squad is in flow and in health again one can only hope that Cucurella plays more as a wing-back than a combative, endearing but oddly mismatched center-back. The problem, however, still remains on the other side of the pitch with James – yet nothing much has been done about it. This is why I am so pro the addition of Bayer Leverkusen’s Jeremie Frimpong.
Not since Roberto Carlos played left back, left-wing, and left forward for Brazil, Inter Milan and Real Madrid in his pomp has a wingback displayed such prodigious attacking talent and coupled it so seamlessly with defensive acumen, strength, wit, wisdom, and pure talent. Chelsea suffers mightily when their star defender is sidelined., similarly to Gareth Southgate’s side at the World Cup.
I dare say that with a summer tournament instead plus time to get their fitness back, England beat France with Reece James and Ben Chilwell in the side. It wouldn’t be a dedicated and yet equally nervy performance from Kyle Walker, Luke Shaw, Jordan Henderson, and John Stones against the might of Kylian Mbappe. It would have been our man James and he’d have pocketed him the way he always does the star of more glamorous continental sides who look down on us.
The rest could then go about playing bravely rather than in fear of allowing Mbappe to break through. The RB would have held the Frenchman as he has Rafael Leao, Rodrygo, Vinicius Jr before having a six-course meal and an aperitif out of Theo Hernandez and Adrien Rabiot as he has done before as well.
Ben Chilwell would have put the proverbial Kibosh on Ousmane Dembele just as resoundingly. Then the rest of the team, rather than being worried about being beaten, could have played to win as opposed to in fear of losing.
I do digress and apologies dear readers for that. I just feel that the absurdity of the physical requirements asked of these young men the play in the World Cup in Qatar during the winter at the last minute hasn’t been accepted.
Why do you think teams with fewer players in the Champions League have done so well? Why have teams with healthier, more rested players pulled off more upsets than before? It’s not too hard to see the logic.
Shaw, Kieran Trippier, and Walker are all good players. Seasoned professionals and tactically astute defenders. Ben Chilwell though has a wand of a left foot and Reece James is the most talented player England has other than Jude Bellingham. Chelsea’s wingbacks were our contribution to England’s World Cup and they were the players who could have turned the tide in the Three Lion’s favor.
Both CFC and England were robbed by the fixture pile-up that sprang from the broken promises of a summer tournament. That’s not to say I don’t think it’s lovely the Arab world has been given its first World Cup, because it is lovely and all of the footballing contributions of the Arabian diaspora both in immediacy and heritage deserve a World Cup without a doubt. But a winter world cup played following the failure of a promise of a summer one has led to injuries and hurt results for both national and club sides. That’s all.
The injuries of this year though understood are part of the game and something to be reckoned with more than rolled over by. Everyone has had the fixture pile up and many of the clubs will have the resulting soft tissue injuries that the Blues has had and so making excuses is to waste time in both making and believing them. That is why some of the recent whispers coming out of the Chelsea camp have me so worried.
“Even if Chelsea misses the top four they’re going to keep Graham Potter” we’re hearing. Of course a little continuity is a great thing but Chelsea cannot come out and say anything of the sort.
“Chelsea will make the top four and support Graham Potter in furthering our ambitions as a club on top of the foundation we are building together” – is the sort of thing I want to hear. Preparing to fail and mentally accepting it in advance is to guarantee yourself the possibility of doing so. We’re not even halfway through the season. Nothing is written yet.
Chelsea should not fire Potter if they don’t make the Champions League (unless Tuchel is available… that’s a joke – keep your milk in your glasses). They should also however not be making their peace with mediocrity in advance. That is not how excellence is achieved. Toiling against all odds till the last second with blood, sweat, and tears to maintain a certain standard is how it is done. Not by publicly coming to terms with its absence before that loathsome fate has been assured.
The fact that Chelsea is coming out and saying such things at the moment is what worries me. Though it isn’t something we like to discuss the squad has a reputation for mental weakness and that has to be accounted for.
The sentiment is fine but I worry that the timing of a public admission of such thoughts opens up mental space for failure and often in that space is where that parasite grows into the illness that allows those who could have been great to be merry being good and that is not what sport is about.
Sport and the microcosm that it is, is about the perhaps impossible pursuit of perfection because though it may prove to be impossible it is through the pursuit of that goal that you just might be great and that is what it means to be human. To have triumphed over all the things that could have held us back did not take being merely good it took being great and that is what I hope for, for my football club. I hope that they’re great six days a week and then twice on Sunday and the first step towards that achievement is expecting it. Up the Chels’.