At the Vitality Stadium on Sunday, Chelsea had the opportunity to bounce back against Bournemouth after the international break which followed a cruel defeat against Nottingham Forrest (0-1). But nothing happened, or almost nothing, and the Blues only left with a small point (0-0). If Raheem Sterling had nevertheless found the square, the Londoners were unable to dominate a team which plays to maintain. For the moment, Chelsea are not playing much either. 14th in the Premier League with 5 points collected in as many days, Todd Boehly’s squad is struggling to recover from a chaotic last season at all levels. Several factors explain this, injuries at the top of the list, but not only that.
A packed infirmary
Lucas Bergstrom, Djordje Petrovic, Alfie Gilchrist, Deivid Washington, Alex Matos, Ronnie Stutter… these names may not mean anything to you, and yet, they were on the Chelsea bench against the Cherries on Sunday afternoon. Players used to youth categories, not to the first team. But Mauricio Pochettino was forced to call on some of them to complete the scoresheet. And for good reason, the Blues squad is more decimated than ever. Like last year, at the end of 2022, Chelsea sees its infirmary overflowing. Worse, almost all of the injured are part of the team’s senior players and also represent major investments.
The captain, Reece James, was injured against the Reds on the first day of the Premier League. Benoit Badiashile and Wesley Fofana have been unavailable for many months. Carney Chukwuemeka, crucial in preseason and scorer against West Ham, is injured, as are Marc Cucurella, Trevoh Chalobah, Moisés Caicedo, Christopher Nkunku, Armando Broja and Marcus Bettinelli. Not to mention Roméo Lavia, who was expected as the starting number 6, but who will not return for many weeks. A real massacre which hits the Blues at the worst of times. While Chelsea had an excellent summer tour in the form of an enticing 4-2-3-1, which saw Nkunku pile up the goals, the injury of the former RB Leipzig is the one which surely damaged the formation the most London.
Mauricio Pochettino tinkers, but is not really manual
According to Opta, against Bournemouth in the last match, Lesley Ugochukwu became the 37th Chelsea player to start in 2023. A crazy statistic which sums up the lack of continuity within the club, not helped by repeated injuries and the ultra-aggressive policy of Todd Boehly on the transfer market. While waiting to see his best elements return, Mauricio Pochettino must still pile up a few victories to avoid a disaster scenario. So far, the Argentinian has not been able to find the fault against Liverpool and West Ham (1-1, 3-1), nothing too bad, but he has also not been able to gain the upper hand against at Forest and the Cherries (0-1, 0-0). Without forgetting the sluggish success in the Carabao Cup against Wimbledon (2-1) at home.
It is mainly tactically that the ex-PSG tactician is floundering. Since the start of the season, Mauricio Pochettino has aligned Ben Chilwell on the left wing, as well as Levi Colwill – a trained central defender – as a full-back on the same side. Two players out of position. The first, captain since Reece James’ injury, is one of the worst performing men in the group and was even pushed to the bench on the last day, to finally make way for Mykhailo Mudryk. The system chosen by the Argentinian looks like a sort of modular 5-3-2, probably too hybrid within a team seeking stability. In preseason, the 4-2-3-1 looked attractive, but the successive losses of Nkunku and Chukwuemeka upset the vision of Mauricio Pochettino, who now only uses 2 offensive players: Raheem Sterling and Nicolas Jackson . If the Ukrainian Mudryk had his first start in the championship, to replace his attacking colleagues, his performance – neither good nor bad – should not have cleared his coach’s view.
A patience that is expensive
“He’s getting better. He still needs to learn, the Premier League is very fast, the speed of the game is so fast. I think it’s about understanding the game better, trying to be more connected with the team sometimes. We need to give him time and give him the tools to improve throughout the season.”, detailed Pochettino about Mudryk, after his mixed performance. The former Shakhtar star is the allegory for the lack of confidence and stability at Chelsea. After 19 Premier League matches in total under his belt (but only 783 minutes), the Ukrainian has still not found the net. The young 22-year-old nugget doesn’t have a fixed role and finds herself thrown around, fighting for crumbs at the end of meetings most of the time. Mykhailo Mudryk still has time to spare if the fans lose patience.
In recent weeks, several players have expressed their frustration even if the team compares well to last season when the locker room was fractured. The Mirror reports that Thiago Silva remained “furious” with his teammates after the draw against the Cherries while Conor Gallagher expressed his annoyance at Enzo Fernandez, who has just returned from South America. “We have to continue like this, but be more killer in the opposing area. That’s football. We have to keep going because I think we are performing well on the pitch, but we just have to kill the opportunities when we have them.explained Axel Disasi, who points out the terrible lack of efficiency of his team.
According to official Premier League figures, the Blues have missed the 12 famous big chances they have created so far. A bitter observation for a club which will undoubtedly have to wait for the return of certain executives before returning to adequate performance. In the meantime and even if it is still a long way off, the end of the year already promises to be challenging with on the menu: Arsenal (21/10), Brentford (28/10), Tottenham (6/11), Manchester City (12/11), Newcastle (25/11), Brighton (2/12) and Manchester United (6/12). The clock is ticking in southwest London and we need to take points as quickly as possible in the coming weeks to avoid an unmanageable situation.
