Chelsea might have “won the transfer window” for the X-dwelling fans who are into that sort of thing. But they don’t seem as adept at winning football matches. Unfortunately for the Blues, the latter is the metric used to compose the Premier League table. Chelsea’s transfer outlay of over £400 million sees them top the spending charts, but they sit 14th in the league. Sunday’s 1-0 loss to Aston Villa only served to pile more misery upon the west Londoners.
While Chelsea’s spending seems reckless, there has been a refining of the formula this summer. While the rest of the Todd Boehly/Clearlake tenure has seen the ownership fritter money away like an eight-year-old playing EA FC, there has been a conscious effort to spend in a more focused manner this term.
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While last summer saw the likes of 33-year-old Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and 31-year-old Kalidou Koulibaly come in on high wages and underperform, now the emphasis is purely on young talent with potential. The oldest signings Chelsea made this summer were Axel Disasi and Robert Sanchez who are both 25. Given they are a central defender and goalkeeper respectively, positions that peak later than most, even these signings are on the young side.
In manager Mauricio Pochettino they have a manager who knows how to mould young players into the ideal unit. His Tottenham Hotspur side saw him guide the likes of Harry Kane, Dele, Ben Davies and Eric Dier to become greater than a sum of their parts. Kane aside, none have been as good since. At Southampton he brought through the likes of Adam Lallana, Luke Shaw and Nathaniel Clyne before they were sold for large fees.
Chelsea have no end of new recruits who fit this remit. 22-year-old Nicolas Jackson stunned La Liga last season with Villarreal. Christopher Nkunku became one of the most sought-after prospects in European football at RB Leipzig. Romeo Lavia, the 19-year-old midfield sensation from Southampton, has joined as has Manchester City’s highly-rated teenager Cole Palmer.
These players and others that have come in previously, like Noni Madueke, Enzo Fernandez and Mykhailo Mudryk, feel like the perfect canvas for Pochettino’s ideas. While the Argentine found himself bogged down by demanding A-listers at Paris Saint-Germain, this Chelsea squad feels like a super-charged version of what he had at Spurs.
So why isn’t it working? Why have the Blues only mustered two wins from Pochettino’s seven matches in charge? Obviously their free-spending ways will mean a bedding-in period is needed. The performances haven’t been all that bad but they haven’t been all that good either. Even as they look less like a team of strangers, this Chelsea vintage seem to lack the edge to kill teams off or even keep them off.
You can’t use the settling excuse forever either. Particularly not under a regime who sacked Thomas Tuchel seven matches into last season, before dispatching Graham Potter, his replacement, in 31 games. Pochettino will not get the patience he enjoyed at Spurs. While there are no Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe or Neymar-type figures to pacify, the pressure is still on.
Chelsea welcome Brighton & Hove Albion in the FA Cup next. After that, Fulham and Burnley await. Those games will be particularly crucial given the horror-run that follows. Arsenal, Brentford and Spurs will all test Chelsea’s mettle severely. The grace period is coming to an end and Pochettino’s side cannot exist solely on flashes of promise. It is time to deliver or risk getting left behind.
The players are there to do it, as is the manager. But the excuses need to stop now. Playing well in spots and losing is the sort of thing that leads to relegation fights, not European qualification. Chelsea have put the pieces in place for success but that success will have to come quickly. Just ask Tuchel and Potter.
