With the rumoured signing of Wesley Fofana from Leicester gaining steam, should the deal be concluded by deadline day, Chelsea FC would have spent in just this transfer window alone £200m on a defense that doesn’t seem to click.
Tomas Tuchel was not impressed after his side’s victory over Leicester City on match day 4, albeit they played most of the game with a man down after Connor Gallagher’s 28th minute sending off. The score was still goalless at that time and Chelsea dug in to eventually take a two goal lead against the eleven men of Leicester thanks to a Raheem Sterling brace. The joy of the two goal lead was short lived as Leicester struck within 3 minutes of Sterling’s goal to leave the game on a knife edge until the end. 3 points for the 10 men of Chelsea, not particularly well played, but much deserved.
Fast forward to match day 5 and Southampton play host to The Blues at Saint Mary’s, still licking their wounds from what was an undeserving loss to a rejuvenated, but not yet perfect Manchester United. Chelsea were looking to build on their victory against Leicester and what better team to do it against than the one rumoured to have internal mutiny and which most pundits have put as favourites to get relegated. Chelsea dominated most of the possession and eventually broke the deadlock in the 23rd minute through a calm finish by Raheem Sterling. Again, the celebrations were cut short when 5 minutes later Romeo Lavia unleashed a beauty of a strike from the edge of the box after Chelsea had failed to deal with a Southampton corner kick. Then on the stroke of half-time things got worse for Tuchel’s men as Adam Armstrong ensured that the home team took the lead into the break.
Chelsea’s second half introduction of Pulisic, Kovacic and Broja could not do enough to turn the game around and the blues left empty handed. It may only be five games into the season but Chelsea find themselves 8 points behind the early pacesetters and they do not look like a team that has a plan to climb their way up. Tuchel needs to be held accountable for some of his bad decisions that he’s made since taking charge. The Champions league triumph is beginning to look more like a a new manager bounce syndrome, than the tactical brilliance of Tuchel.
Tuchel sold Tammy Abraham to Roma as he was not the type of number 9 he was looking for, to then spend £90m on Lukaku, whom he fell out with in a space of 6 months and shipped him out leaving Chelsea without a recognised target man. Kante is becoming more injury prone as age takes it’s toll and Kovacic lacks consistency, yet Chelsea have not addressed this position. Most of Chelsea’s attack came from wingbacks who had a target man in the box to aim at, and as things stand Kai Haverts is not that number 9.
After the loss of Rudiger and Christenson, Tuchel has moved away from playing 3 at the back, settling for a more traditional back 4 without producing the desired results.
Chelsea has done some strange business lately and one wonders if Tuchel would still be in charge at Chelsea under the old regime?
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