As the 2017/18 CFC season grinds on, it`s clear that a few big, central questions will dictate success or failure.
1. Superstars are superstars for a reason. The big La Liga clubs get this and, lo and behold, which teams dominate Europe? The Messis and Ronaldos and Griezmanns of this world aren’t paid top-dollar out of affection. It`s because they can unlock stalemates with one single millisecond of brilliance. The Premier League`s top superstar is Eden Hazard. We can pontificate all we wish about this journeyman and that and this formation and the other, but, in the end, the little Belgian maestro is THE difference. Only Hazard truly “slants the pitch” and forces other teams out of their game-plans and into the need to tie up two, three even four players in order to guard him. Even with that, when number 10 came on against Arsenal on Sunday the most noticeable element in Arsenal`s reaction was panic. Absent superstars, Chelsea’s start – 3rd place after 5 games – is par for the course.
2. Absent superstars, managers need absolute, unconditional support to succeed. The former Chelsea manager was able to prevail with a squad of relative journeymen when his Porto side won the Champions League in 2003/4 or thereabouts. But such an approach takes an enormous toll on a manager`s (nervous) energy. Little did we know that this ability to get blood out of a common-or-garden stone was one of things that attracted the multi-billionaire Chelsea owner to the Portuguese maverick. Trouble is, when that`s the high-risk, high-concentration way you are going to play, the manager needs ceaseless, proactive support around him at all times to avoid meltdown. But when the culture is set up as the direct opposite of that – as it is at CFC – you`re basically planning for the manager to fail (luckily there`s now Enemalo with his top UEFA coaching badge as a back-stop). Antonio Conte – has already experienced the CFC board`s unique interpretation of ‘support`; not least in their uselessness in/unwillingness to buy superstar talent (unless that`s how you choose to characterize Real Madrid`s substitute striker?) Thus, while desperate to have his only true world-class game-changer back in the side, Conte`s lack of alternative means he must do everything he can to ward off a reoccurrence of the Hazard ankle injury that has rendered the Chelsea team so lackluster and uncreative going forward.
3. Properly replacing Matic. The sale of Matic to Man United, strongly resisted by Conte, continues to plague Chelsea – yesterday`s Arsenal game a prime and timely example. If the sale was all good because Matic was to be replaced with Bakayoko then you have to start Bakayoko! But if you’re saying that you need the passing of the human turnstile known as Fabregas, then you`re admitting that you have not replaced the top-class passing of Matic – a thing many so-called Chelsea fans conveniently ignore. You only need to look at this past weekend`s stats to see the most prolific passers: Matic was at the top of the tree with 53 successful passes. In the first half! Of course, this should all be moot once Hazard is 100% – Fabregas will surely be back to the bench with Baka next to Kante where he belongs.
4. Of all qualities necessary at CFC, loyalty is NOT – repeat NOT! – one. This cuts all ways (almost). Not least from manager to player. Gary Cahill is a great guy and entirely the right man to be club captain. The fact that he`s a great guy has probably extended his time at the top level by more than two years already. As a player, Cahill has always reminded me of another great Englishman, Frank Bruno, the heavyweight boxer: incredibly strong man, unbeatable if you try and go through him, but not very agile and susceptible to craft and quickness. Even in the very short time that Antonio Rudiger has replaced Cahill, he has looked clearly the more complete centre back in every way. Who knows whether there is any pressure on The Don to play English players? More likely that The Don is allowing loyalty to ever so slightly color his judgment. This needs to stop – not least because, right now, Cahill is the third best centre back at the club behind Luiz, Rudiger, and Christiansen. Hilariously, the only vestige of loyalty at CFC in the Abramovich era is that shown by the boss to his board; after all, with all of the wonderful things we ordinary fans adore about the beautiful game – the smell of wintergreen, quarter oranges and tea at half-time, jerseys for goalposts, little children learning teamwork their cheeks red from effort, the roar of the crowd – what epitomizes that beauty more than, er, middle-aged people in suits…
5. Why it matters that we`re the most hated team in the league. 99% of the time it doesn’t matter one iota. The one per cent of the time it does – and it matters a lot – is when the FA is the hater. Of course Chelsea is the team that has conceded most penalties this season! That`s a given. But far more insidious is what`s revealed when you watch and re-watch games as closely as I do and learn to interpret the underlying ‘refereeing orientation`. What this reveals is that visitors to Stamford Bridge are treated as if they have a handicap and the refs` job is to even things out. In the opening game against Burnley, little more than a group of thugs got carte blanche to brutalise Chelsea players, while possibly the most honest, down-to-earth player in the Prem – Gary Cahill – was instantly, almost gleefully ejected for what was clearly a lack of timing and balance mixed with first-game-of-the-season over-enthusiasm as much as anything else. That set the tone for the season, where the champions – not a famously physical team (indeed without Costa, almost a soft touch in that department) – nevertheless clearly get subjected to entirely different refereeing standards. It’s like an unspoken FA tax levied against not just a wealthy owner, not just a foreign owner, but an owner and a culture that the FA somehow look at askance.
Spensierato.