High on self-inflicted disasters and low on confidence...chelsea are bang in trouble ... and the laughing stock of the league
ENGLISH football is having a good old laugh at Chelsea.
Mainly because they’re now supplying their own gags.
This week’s offering almost beggared belief.
Manager Mauricio Pochettino has been playing ‘crossbar challenge’ against Mykhailo Mudryk (both, above) to build up the winger’s confidence.
And, get this, the Argentine has been winning…
It wasn’t until midweek that the Ukrainian managed to draw with his 51-year-old boss. Quite what the punters are meant to make of that is anyone’s guess. I know what the rest of the Premier League players and managers will be doing in their canteens up and down the country.
Having a right giggle at Chelsea’s expense as the club lurches from one self-inflicted disaster to another.
Serious
And please don’t be fooled by the midweek Carabao Cup triumph over Brighton’s reserves.
This is as serious as it gets. Is confidence now so fragile that Pochettino has to gee up an £88million signing to perform? Imagine him doing that with Harry Kane at his last English club? It’s a prime example of just how low on confidence, just how desperately the club needs a top striker that a former Paris Saint-germain boss has to employ such tactics.
He knows – and from my vantage point in the Press box at Stamford Bridge last week against Villa it was as plain as the nose on your face – they’re bang in trouble.
Somehow, the club has gathered together the worst group of players I have seen in 20 years.
And it will be up to the limits of patience the decision-makers show as to whether Pochettino gets the chance to rectify this sorry situation. I’m not talking about the board of directors, by the way.
Stakeholders
It’s a reference to the ultimate stakeholders in South West London – the fans, those who part with their hard-earned cash week-in, week-out.
Yes, however long the supporters can find it within themselves to back a manager that turned their most hated rivals into a force will be key to whether this latest manager is turfed out of the hot seat.
Can the club’s faithful find it within themselves to stand by the Argentine
It’s understandable why Aston Villa’s mens’ and womens’ angst. However, isn’t the overall effect just the same
until the new year? Pochettino was carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders after losing to Villa.
He must have been wondering how £1bn had been spent on watering down the Blues’ goal threat.
Raheem Sterling looks like he is still a handful. But how long can he keep shouldering that burden without any help?
How long before his confidence goes and Pochettino plays ‘crossbar challenge’ with him, too?
Chelsea’s boss either needs Nicolas Jackson to come good – which ain’t gonna happen because he’s not good enough – or for long-term injury victim
Armando Broja to do likewise. Otherwise, he’s waiting until after Christmas for Christopher Nkunku to work himself back to full fitness.
As if the situation wasn’t crazy enough, they’ve allowed Romelu Lukaku to return to Italy at Roma.
Leave
In his last five appearances for club and country, the Belgium international has found the net five times.
The one guy who does know the route to goal has been allowed to leave on loan. The punchlines keep adding themselves. The latest joke doing the rounds in midweek was that it was a good job Jackson found the net against the Seagulls because at least it gave them a contender for the club’s ‘Goal of the Month’ competition.
Pochettino must be wondering how £1billion has been spent on watering down the Blues’ goal threat
Fulham will be licking their lips at the prospect of facing their neighbours tomorrow night.
For years, the Cottagers were on the wrong end of Chelsea’s might – now’s prime time to change that.
Lose that – and with four out of their next six Premier League fixtures against three of last season’s top four and Spurs – their season could implode.
And then it really will be no laughing matter.
teams might be upset at the new Castore jerseys that retain too much sweat, causing discomfort and if it rains which, on these shores, is an occupational hazard?