The Chelsea Blues

Chelsea are sitting at 10th place in the table with 25 points.  That is 10 points behind 4th place the Red Devils with 35 points and 10 points ahead of Everton who have 15 points after 18 matches played.  The Blues are as close to playing in the Champions League as they are to being relegated to the one championship they do not want to compete for.  

An abysmal 20 goals after 17 league matches.  The team may be plagued by injuries, however I do not believe they are the reason for this campaign's woes.  In fact, I think they are highlighting the true issue at the heart of the club which is a lack of control and using spot signings to remain competitive instead of setting up the club for future success.

In new owner's Todd Boehly's first transfer window, he showed he was willing to spend, but that's not new for Chelsea.  They attempted to remake the attack without reinforcing the engine of a football team, the midfield.  Moving off of disappointing forwards like Timo (26) and Romelu (29) were wise decisions, but who they replaced them with were not.  Spending $12.5m on a 33 year old Aubameyang to fill the void of the u30 departing CFs and bringing in a seemingly plateaued and exhausted winger in Sterling for $61.8m which was head scratching for me at the time. 

Moving to the midfield, with the aging duo of Kanté and Jorginho at 31 years old each, Chelsea reinforced one of the most dominant midfield trio in Europe with two teenagers and Zakaria.  As a Barcelona fan, I observed the midfield age out without a succession plan.  This lack of due-diligence ultimately led to Messi being the lone playmaking midfielder sending through balls to Arturo Vidal.  A football travesty.  Worse for Chelsea, they do not have a player like Messi to help cover up the glaring issues within the squad.  

These moves have created a lack of dynamic depth that is needed to compete over the 38 slog of a Premier League season combined with the other in-season competitions.  Being forced to rely on a rotating combination of Jorginho, Kovacic, and Loftus-Cheek without Kanté has drastically reduced Chelsea's ability to control how they wish to play.  As a result, this increases the opponent's ability to create chances while reducing Chelsea's.  As it stands now, Chelsea are operating at an xG rate of 1.10 and 0.83 xAG per 90 minutes.  Last year, when Chelsea finished third in the league, they averaged an xG of 1.83 and an xAG of 1.36.

The issue of creating chances is exacerbated when you do not have a "proper 9" or a clinical finisher to head the attack.  It is my belief that Kai Havertz is the most unfairly treated and most unfortunate player in Europe.  A progressive attacking mid who has been forced to play striker for multiple seasons due to Chelsea's inability to find a productive goal scoring forward.  The Champions League winner has done what he can.   However, not having a trained finisher receiving the reduced amount of chances created is a recipe for disappointment.  

I actually think Chelsea have a very promising attacking young core.  Havertz playing behind a center forward, Sterling providing width and penetrating skill with his speed and technical ability, Mason Mount drifting centrally allowing Cucurella to provide overlapping runs on the left flank is a threatening and creative attack on paper.  However, this is not what Graham Potter has been given to work with.

These series of unfortunate events ultimately led to the dreadful XI named by Graham Potter for the match against Manchester City yesterday.  Chelsea trotted out a 4-2-3-1 which was really a fifaesque 4-2-4.  A midfield of Kovacic and Zakaria against Rodri-De Bruyne-Silva.  A 1-0 scoreline that was only a result of possibly De Bruyne's worst game of the season and Pep's obsesion of isolating Foden on the left wing.   

Below, are Chelsea's current injury report courtesy of premierinjuries.com/teams/chelsea.  Unfortunately, the injuries to Sterling and Pulisic could be additional long-term ailments that Chelsea will have to suffer from.  With the winter transfer window open,  it will become clear as to what Chelsea prioritize: desperate spot solutions in an attempt to salvage a dreadful campaign, or Boehly taking time to visualize what he wants Chelsea to be under his control.