Chelsea are out of the title race already
The clocks haven’t gone back yet but Conte was beaten before season started
Fail to prepare, prepare to fail. Chelsea were not ready for this Premier league campaign and they are paying the price. This may have been a magnificent and spirited performance from Roy Hodgson’s Crystal Palace, but Chelsea were sluggish, limp, too meek for a battle. it is the opposite to everything we have come to expect from antonio Conte and Chelsea are already out of the title race before the clocks have gone back.
Consider this statistic. Chelsea have lost three of their opening eight Premier league games. No team has lifted the top-flight title with such a record since Sir Matt Busby’s Manchester United in 1967. To win the title from here, Chelsea must confound half a century of history.
Yet can we really be surprised it is coming to this? a summer pockmarked by tension between the manager and club hierarchy, lapsed transfer dealings and a player taking refuge in north-east Brazil was always going to bite.
What made Chelsea believe they could get away with this? Manchester City concluded their major transfer business by July 24. Manchester United had Victor lindelof, Nemanja Matic and Romelu lukaku in the bag by the end of the same month.
Chelsea did sign alvaro Morata, Tiemoue Bakayoko and antonio Rudiger by the start of the season, but clearly Conte needed more. On august 25, he warned: ‘if someone is thinking that i can use only 11 players or 13 players, it’s impossible. impossible.’
Chelsea continued flailing around the transfer market, missing out on alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Ross Barkley. Eight games in and Chelsea find themselves nine points behind Manchester City and 20 behind Pep Guardiola’s side on goal difference. There are title defences, and then there are Chelsea title defences.
Mourinho knows all about that, of course, and he takes his United team to Stamford Bridge on Bonfire Night when he can kiss sweet dreams to Chelsea’s hopes once and for all.
There was some mitigation on Saturday, notably in the absences of N’Golo Kante and Morata. Victor Moses also exited with a hamstring injury in this game. ‘it seems it never rains but it pours,’ captain Gary Cahill said of the injuries. We should remember that City scored seven without Sergio aguero on Saturday and United drew at anfield without Eric Bailly or Paul Pogba or Marcus Rashford starting.
Chelsea should still have been able to win this game. This was a Palace team on their second manager by the second week of September, with seven defeats in seven games, a goal difference of -17 and not a goal to their name.
in Morata’s place, Michy Batshuayi underwhelmed, but he hardly appears to have been aided by hs manager.
The £30.5million Belgian striker scored the winning goal in the last minute of the victory at atletico Madrid. it might have been a turning point. Surely, his confidence would rarely have been higher. Yet when Morata came off injured against City, Conte decided to leave Batshuayi on the bench and play without a striker.
Here, Batshuayi was substituted after 57 minutes and it is clear the manager has little trust. Morata returns on Wednesday, thankfully.
Chelsea know they are losing ground. Cahill conceded after this that his side may now need to repeat last season’s 13-match winning run to hang on to the coat-tails of the Manchester clubs.
Conte (right) spoke of a need for patience and building for the future. He warned that the club are struggling to cope with the demands of Premier league and European responsibilities.
Conte said: ‘This season will be difficult but also we have to understand that we have to try to build something important for the future, to give the opportunity to the new players to have more experience in this league, to give the opportunity to young players to show they deserve to stay and play for Chelsea.
‘We must have patience this season, and understand that it won’t be easy.’
For all Chelsea’s flaws, Palace were marvellous, a team reborn. This, therefore, was the result of the Premier league season so far. Hodgson deserves credit and he was boosted by an outstanding display by the returning Wilfried Zaha, who terrorised Chelsea’s back three and scored the winning goal shortly before half-time.
Zaha believes his team can stay up. ‘it’s all about confidence,’ he said. ‘That’s it really, because i know we have good enough players. Play with confidence and freedom and we’ll climb the table.
‘it’s a thing where, after you’ve lost every game you have nothing to be scared of really. So it’s a thing where you are not scared of anything, you just play with freedom. Getting the first goal was massive. and from getting that boost, that helped us win the game.’ CRYSTAL PALACE (4-4-2): Speroni 7; Ward 7.5, Dann 7, Sakho 8, Van Aanholt 6.5; McArthur 7 (Fosu-Mensah 85min), Cabaye 7 (Riedewald 86), Milivojevic 7.5, Schlupp 7 (Puncheon 75, 6); ZAHA 8.5, Townsend 7. Subs not used: Tomkins, Kaikai, Sako, Henry. Scorers: Azpilicueta 11 (og), Zaha 45. Booked: Dann, Milivojevic. Manager: Roy Hodgson 8.
CHELSEA (3-4-3): Courtois 5; Azpilicueta 5, Luiz 4.5, Cahill 5.5; Moses 6 (Zappacosta 40, 5), Fabregas 5, Bakayoko 5.5, Alonso 5; Willian 4.5 (Musonda 65, 5.5), Batshuayi 4 (Pedro 57, 6), Hazard 5. Subs not used: Caballero, Rudiger, Christensen, Scott. Scorer: Bakayoko 18. Booked: Bakayoko. Manager: Antonio Conte 5. Referee: Andre Marriner 6.