STERLING Tuchel needs Raheem to hit ground running A shadow over Arteta empire
AT the start of July, Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel was beaming at securing his top transfer target for the summer – Raheem Sterling.
By the end of the month, though, he was bemoaning the Londoners’ poor displays on their pre-season tour of America.
Not enough commitment, not enough application and well below his expectations is how the German summed up losing on penalties to local MLS side Charlotte and then crashing to Premier League rivals Arsenal in Florida.
Now, it is hard to dispute that the £45milllion signing of England man Sterling from Manchester City is a bargain at that price, especially given he is 28 and quite possibly entering his peak years.
However, there is one snag to Tuchel’s claim that he was the club’s absolute priority in the first transfer window of the post-Roman Abramovich era.
As good as Sterling is and may prove to be amid the new dawn at Stamford Bridge, he is not a prolific marksman with a lethal finish.
Sure, his Three Lions and City records suggest otherwise. But that’s on paper and does not reveal that for every goal scored for club and country, there is probably another that went begging.
Which should mean the Wembley-born winger fits in perfectly at misfiring Chelsea, whose inability to finish off teams when on top continually came back to haunt them last season.
And, in case anybody tries to convince you otherwise, the Blues’ downturn began before Russia’s invasion of
Ukraine, which occurred in the week of their League Cup Final penalty shoot-out reverse to Liverpool and later led to the sanctioning of former owner Abramovich. They were right in the thick of the title mix around Christmas but had completely lost touch by early February. The reasons? Well, injuries to flying wing-backs Ben Chilwell and Reece
James, who were on fire with goals and assists, did not help. But neither did the manager’s breakdown in relationship with £97.5m record signing Romelu Lukaku.
So poor was the Belgium striker’s second spell at the club, he could not wait to get back to
Inter Milan
– on loan.
And Tuchel, it seems, could not get him out fast enough.
That’s the manager’s prerogative, obviously, but no straight replacement has arrived since.
As a result, the 2020 Champions League winners are gambling on Sterling, Mason Mount, Kai Havertz and Conor Gallagher to provide the goals conspicuous by their absence.
ARSENAL have had a pretty decent pre-season – but nobody should be under any illusions.
Beating undercooked Everton and Chelsea line-ups in America earlier this month will count for nothing come Friday should they start the new campaign with a loss at Crystal Palace.
It is what went down at the end of last term when Mikel Arteta’s men blew up – and saw Champions League football disappear for a fifth year on the bounce – that remains the real concern on the red side of North London.
But the Gooners faithful have cause for some optimism as their young Spanish coach continues transforming the team into a mini-style Manchester City.
The traits taken from his time at the Etihad as assistant to Pep Guardiola – non-stop touchline instruction and activity, ruthless intolerance for any rebel in the camp, and a love for fast, slick football – are obvious.
This summer he has taken that philosophy to the next level by spending just shy of £80million on City’s Brazilian forward Gabriel Jesus and versatile
Ukrainian left wing-back Oleksandr Zinchenko.
Expensive, yes, but Jesus has settled in quickly and nobody can doubt the pair of serial silverware winners enhance the quality on show at the Emirates. How much and how fast, though, are more pertinent questions.
After all, in the previous campaign, Arteta’s second full one as boss, there were signs his methods were finally paying off.
Until, that is, they slipped from fourth to fifth during the run-in.
True, very few expected them to be that high in the first place – especially after three defeats at the start of the season left them bottom of the table. Yet, having got all the way up there, to choke and allow Tottenham to grab fourth spot instead, was an absolute horror show.
Time for Jesus and Co to show their steel.