With new talent in tow,, the Blues appear poised to mount a title challenge
In a Premier League offseason in which business as usual was severely dampened by COVID’s impact on normally bursting club coffers, Chelsea had a transfer window for the ages.
While financial juggernauts like Manchester City tightened their purse strings, tinpot clubs like Liverpool furloughed staff, and Arsenal players took wage cuts, Chelsea did nothing of the sort and went about their business in a manner that harkened back to the mid-aughts when Russian owner Roman Abramovich first injected his oligarch money into the club to immediate effect.
This past summer, manager Frank Lampard and technical advisor, Petr Cech, went on a recruitment spree which saw them inject sorely needed quality into the ranks. Having previously been unfairly punished with a two-window transfer ban, Lampard was able to bring in Timo Werner (striker), Hakim Ziyech (attacking midfielder), Kai Havertz (attacking midfielder), Thiago Silva (centre back), and Ben Chillwell (left back) to augment his side. With the quality now at his disposal, some are expecting this year’s title race to involve three thoroughbreds, with Liverpool and City potentially having their joint stranglehold on the Premier League trophy loosened a touch.
Having said that, Liverpool’s win at the Bridge this past Sunday only served to illustrate how far of a gap Chelsea has to close as the third horse in that figurative race. In a match that saw Chelsea field a side which still included Kepa and Jorginho, two of the weak links in the now robust squad, the West London side struggled to impose their will on a confident Liverpool side. The task of breaking down Liverpool’s resolute defence became even more difficult when Chelsea had Andreas Christensen sent off for dragging Sadio Mane down as he was en route to a clear goal-scoring opportunity. Lampard had to bow to pragmatism and removed Kai Havertz from the fray early into his Stamford Bridge debut in favour of central defender Fikayo Tomori, in a move that all but put the final nail in the coffin of Chelsea’s offensive ambitions in the match.
While the result was not ideal for Chelsea, the future looks bright after the influx of talent. Werner and Havertz were marquee additions, with the two Germanic youngsters having been wanted by the continent’s best. The former presents the first veritable world-class striker to grace the Stamford Bridge pitch since Diego Costa in the mid 2010’s, while the latter is a generational talent, whose cerebral ability and physical prowess have seen him likened to another Die Mannschaft great, Michael Ballack. If Havertz can reach the heights that Ballack did for Chelsea, he will have justified his club record price tag.
Although such an influx of quality obviously came at a high price, detractors who labelled Chelsea as trying to buy the league are misguided in their shallow criticism. In levying such a complaint, they have exposed their own hypocrisy. Those same people criticized youth products like Tammy Abraham and Fikayo Tomori for not being good enough last season, but then turned around and berated Chelsea for seeking to improve in those positions — no matter that City and Liverpool have both spent massively to get their squads to the place they are in now. Given the fact that the club had both not spent for two transfer windows, and recouped massive sums for Alvaro Morata and Eden Hazard, the actual amount of their spending should be put into the context of net spend, which dramatically alters the picture that commentators are trying to paint.
Madness is doing the same thing but expecting different results. If you don’t show your ambition by spending when you clearly need to, you become like Arsenal — stagnant and a shell of your former self.
The powers that be at Chelsea will surely expect great things from Lampard and Co. given the new arrivals this summer. The Chelsea legend will likely be expected to adopt a more identifiable set of tactics now that he has the players to do so. He will also be expected to improve the horrid point total that he managed the season prior — it was only by virtue of the other clubs around Chelsea performing equally as poorly that they managed to scrape a top four finish and secure a Champions League place. The addition of Anthony Barry as a new defensive coach should stop the leakiness at the back and solidify things for Chelsea. The former Wigan man should also prove to be a talent for both crafting innovative set piece routines as well as defending them.
With all that in mind, a third-place finish behind Liverpool and City sides that have had years to develop under the same managers would not be something to balk at. Finishing in a Champions League-qualifying position and a deep run in Europe is a realistic and manageable expectation, but realistic expectations are not the modus operandi at a club with goals as high as Chelsea’s. Lampard will likely have the entire season to prove himself now that proper reinforcements have entered the fold. However, sentimentality won’t stop Abramovich from giving him the sack if he hasn’t shown signs of improvement. But just as he did as an academy product at West Ham, and upon breaking into an upstart Chelsea side, Lampard will surely prove himself to be a quick study and add to his existing renown at the club.
