The Story Of Chelsea’s Season So Far

Chelsea are currently hanging on to their 3rd place by a point and a could lose it if Spurs managed 3 points against West Ham later tonight. When the Blues sacked their Champions league winning manager Roberto Di Matteo they were third in the Premier League and four points behind league leaders Manchester City and due to host them at Stamford Bridge just five days later. A win would take them within smelling distance of the top of the league.

However, three months on, Chelsea still sit third in the league (provided Tottenham don’t win their game in hand). The difference is that they are a massive 19 points behind the league leaders. If sacking Di Matteo was bad, appointing Rafa Betinez was disastrous. It’s impossible to say for sure, but there are more people out there who believes Chelsea would be a lot better off right now if they had kept Di Matteo.

Rafa Benitez is surely not a fan favorite

At-least when AVB was sacked, the results were not going in favour of the team and the fans and players were happy about it, but when Di Matteo was sacked there was a state of turmoil at the Bridge. He is a young manager and he is entitled to make a few mistakes, but he was great for the most part. Not only that, he was adored by the fans. Looking back on it, you have just got to wonder what on earth Roman was thinking.

Arsenal were considered having a disastrous season, but when you look at it closely Chelsea and QPR are having the most horrible season out of all the Premier league clubs. Whilst they are at totally opposite ends of the table, their situations are very similar. Both have been heavily invested in and both have had a managerial change.

QPR have spent massive amounts of money in order to try and stay in the Premier League but are already in deep trouble. Chelsea have spent ludicrous amounts of money in order  to try and get back in the title race and they are miles away. Considering the net worth of their attacking line-up which is easily more than a £100 Million, their league table doesn’t do justice and they are out of all cup competitions except for the Europa league and quarter final clash with Manchester United.

If you have an attacking line-up which worth more than £ 100 million you should be winning the league or at-least challenging for it. Last night’s match against City was another example of how Chelsea’s season has been tumbling down the barrel due to bad management and a certain Fernando Torres playing up-front. Starting Ramires on the wings, substituting Lampard instead of Ramires and the list of errors  under Benitez just keeps piling.

When Chelsea bought Demba Ba in the January window, it led to the debate of whether he was Sturridge’s replacement or for Torres. But Benitez never had a clear plan for Ba and he has not been effective as he was for Newcastle. At the start of the season Chelsea made the decision to loan Romelu Lukaku to West Brom, but looking at the the stats now it would have been more wise to keep hold of him.

Torres in the Premier League: 23 starts (26 appearances), 7 goals, 4 assists, 57 shots, 70% pass success, 3 man of the match awards.

Lukaku in the Premier League: 12 starts (25 appearances), 12 goals, 2 assists, 67 shots, 70% pass success, 3 man of the match awards.

To sum up in a few lines, Chelsea have scored more goals than Man city, Conceded less goals than Man united, didnt score when it mattered,
conceded when it mattered. The expectation of highly paid superstars to perform under bad management has led Chelsea to a roller coaster season. They can still win the FA cup and qualify for the Champions league if the senior players and Benitez step up and show some determination.