Title hopefuls to outside the top four: What has gone wrong at Chelsea of late? | OneFootball

It has been a tale of two halves for Chelsea this season. Their form prior to Christmas had them involved in an unexpected title race but their form since has dipped dramatically.

On the 21st December, after 16 games, the Blues found themselves second in the league and only two points behind Liverpool.

But after 25 games, they are now sixth and 17 points behind Liverpool. It is almost inconceivable how quickly and far they have fallen away from the title race since then.

So what has gone wrong?

A poor transfer strategy and not enough experience

With an average age of 23, this is a Chelsea squad that lacks experience. Younger players have no one to look to for experience and to lead the way, and it looked like they could not handle the pressure that came with being title contenders.

That is why squads have older, more experienced members. When Chelsea won the Champions League in 2021, they had a young squad, but they had the likes of Thiago Silva, Antonio Rudiger and Jorginho, all proven winners and weathered players, leading the way.

Manchester United’s class of ’92 came through alongside experienced, great players.

It is unreasonable for Chelsea’s owners and sporting directors to expect a squad without any experience to deal with huge pressure.

That is why “We want our Chelsea back”, could be heard being sung by fans in the game against Brighton on Friday, only several months after they were singing “We’ve got our Chelsea back” at Southampton in December.

It’s shocking how quickly Chelsea have unraveled, and it now seems they face a serious challenge to secure Champions League football next season, when at one point it seemed almost a given.

Injuries

Like many teams, Chelsea have been unlucky with injuries. Romeo Lavia started the season in fantastic form, but has suffered with a hamstring injury that has led him to miss 130 days of the campaign so far.

Similarly, Wesley Fofana had an excellent start to the season before suffering a hamstring injury in early December. The loss of the Frenchman had an impact not only because of his own quality, but Levi Colwill has looked a much lesser player without him in recent months.

More recent ailments, to Nicolas Jackson and Marc Guiu, have meant Chelsea are without a proper striker. Christopher Nkunku has had to play there, but he is not a number nine, and the Blues have lost both games that he has played there so far.

The absence of the Conference League

It seems likely that the ending of a competition would make a team fresher and more energised, but it has had the opposite effect for Chelsea.

The Europa Conference League was highly beneficial at the start of the season. Enzo Maresca has a big squad and the competition meant he could put out two separate XI’s every week.

Almost every player was getting regular game time and it is perhaps no coincidence that the end of the group stage of the ECL has coincided with Chelsea’s poor form.

It also means the Blues have had to call on players who are not as match fit, given their lack of game time.

Individual performances have gotten worse

As well as the other reasons, a large part of Chelsea’s drop-off is simply down to individual performances not being at the same level they were earlier this campaign.

Robert Sanchez has made several mistakes in goal. Cole Palmer has not scored in over a month, and has not registered an assist since December 1st.

Levi Colwill and the rest of the defence have been error prone. Things have gotten worse all over the pitch. And the reluctance from the board to sign a goalkeeper or striker in January has just exacerbated issues.

No-one could have foreseen the two injuries to Jackson and Guiu, but fans were clamouring for a striker all month. It was a similar situation with the goalkeeper position. Sanchez has been making mistakes for months, but no action has been taken.

Enzo Maresca now faces an uphill battle to end the season strongly, and fans and the board will seemingly accept nothing less than a Conference League triumph and a top four finish.