Luke's Football blog

It has been one of the worst seasons so far for Chelsea with them ten points off a top 4 place in January whilst having two wins in their last ten games and out of the fa cup and league cup at the hands of Manchester city so what has gone wrong for the blues this season.

Chelsea had a successful season last season which saw them win two trophies and reach the final of the two cup competitions and qualifying for the top four with some personal issues affecting their team with Abramovich having his assets frozen due to his links with Russian president Vladimir Putin. This meant he had to put the club on sale and it was eventually was brought by Tood Boahly and his associates for 4.25 billion pounds.

In pre season they went to the united states which saw them win only one game and lose to Arsenal and Charlotte FC who they lost to on penalties but they eventually backed it up with two wins against Udinese but it was an unconvincing pre season for the blues.

They made some transfers that summer with adding to their defensive ranks by signing Cucurella Koulibaly and Fofana then they took sterling from their close rivals Man city then signed Aubameyang from Barcelona for 12 million then they made midfield signings of Chukwuemeka from Aston villa and Denis Zakaria on loan from Juventus which came to a total of 237 million pounds.

Their premier league season started with an unconvincing win against Everton as they gave away so many chances but Everton weren’t clinical enough in the final third a Jorginho pen got them the win on that day. In their next game however it was a better performance with them taking the lead twice once with Koulibaly scoring his first goal for the club then Reece James put them in the lead again after Højbjerg equalized on sixty five minutes. Then the second goal for spurs caused a lot of controversy as before the second corner which lead to the goal Cucurella had his hair pulled by Romero which wasn’t seen as violent conduct by the referee’s which determined the result of the game and what lead to both managers fighting at the end and getting sent off and fined.

This lead to some more unconvincing performances with losses to Leeds and Dinamo Zagreb which lead to Chelsea sacking Thomas Tuchel which was met with anger from Chelsea supporters as he was a fan favourite at the club as he got them 3 trophies during his tenure at the club with the most important being the champions league which was so important as he reached the final the year before and didn’t come out victorious.

They replaced him with one of the best upcoming managers in Graham Potter and they started off well going 8 games unbeaten and winning 6 in the process but one thing which hurt them was the injury to key player Reece James as he is the player that makes everyone else tick in the team and it shows as the form with him in the team is good. The blues good run ended at the amex where Potter lost 4-1 to his former club and that result spiralled into more bad form as they went on to lose their next 3 games before the world cup break.

The world cup break gave Potter the chance to get some of his players back into fitness but just before the break was over they lost Borja in a friendly who is now out till August then in a training friendly they lost Forfana who was rushed back by the Chelsea medical staff. Then in their first game back they broke the duck and beat Bournemouth 1-0 with Reece James coming back from injury but then in the 57th minute he got injured again and was set to be out for a month which lead the question as to why he was also rushed back just like Forfana. In the next game they played well but dropped points at the city ground to a volley from Serge Aurier which is poor as they should be realistically picking up points against these sort of teams.

This lead to another poor run of form which included a loss to man city which they picked up more injuries with Sterling and Pulisic joining the long injury list for the blues. Then a few days later they lost again to the same opponents which prompted them to get Joao Felix on loan who is one of the most expensive transfers in the world from Athletico Madrid and he had a good debut but it soon turned bad as he got sent off for a 2 footed challenge on Kenny Tete.

This again prompted Todd to spend again getting Mykhalo Mudryk from Shaktar Donetsk who was a transfer target for rivals arsenal but he chose Chelsea who gave him the better contract. Then they soon found form again getting a narrow win against Crystal Palace with a Kai Havertz header. Then in the next game they picked up a 0-0 draw vs fellow strugglers Liverpool. Chelsea will hopefully want to keep up this good form which could push them into the European places as they Currently stand in 10th in the league and 10 points off champions league places which no one would’ve thought before the season started.