Ok, so we lost the first game of the season, at home, against Burnley, we dropped 3 points. There are still 111 more up for grabs and let’s face it at the end of the day, a game of football can go this way. It’s a bit early to hit the panic button just yet.
Circumstances, sometimes, can just conspire against you. There are no pushover teams in the Premier League anymore. It is without doubt the strongest league in the world. It’s why it’s loved the world over. No team has the divine right to beat any other team, ask Leicester City.
If you’re going to have a meltdown, it’s probably better to get it out of the way early on. It may be the catalyst that kicks some sense into a dysfunctional team off the field that has quickly filtered down to make for a dysfunctional team on it.
Antonio Conte has not helped the situation either. Since returning from his holidays he hasn’t looked a happy soul, of course we don’t know how he been with the team in training. If the relationship has changed. The whole Diego Costa saga will have been unsettling throughout the club.
For the players, it must be difficult to detach themselves from all the background shenanigans and concentrate on playing football. Whilst all around them this transfer circus is in motion. Despite three decent players having been bought into the squad during this transfer window, which would generally be regarded as good business, a lot of potentially decent players have been inexplicably allowed to leave. Players that could have affected the team, players who ought, by now, to have been pushing for starting places.
Let’s not also forget that the players have seen a coach, in Steve Holland, leave the football club. Someone they would have had a strong affinity with. Chelsea’s form dipped badly when Ray Wilkins was asked to leave his position as No.2 during Carlo Ancelotti`s managerial reign in 2010. These things get into the player’s psyche.
Some footballers, not all by any means, but some, who retire, or have to leave the game early, can struggle to come to terms with life outside of the game. This suggests a vulnerability. They are looked after by their management, the structure of people within the club, their wives and girlfriends. Their whole existence simply revolves around playing football. In that sense they are finely tuned instruments. Small changes can affect their delicate balance.
This combination of small, subtle distortions to, what they consider to be the norm may have created a toxic atmosphere within the football club. The individual incidents may have been small but the accumulation was immense and probably unforeseen until Saturday.
The hope must be, that Burnley’s kick up the ass, will kick start Chelsea’s season in the same way Arsenal`s 3-0 win last year did.
Of course it may simply have been one of those off days that can sometimes occur in football, maybe I’ve over thought it. With injuries recovering and suspensions running their course, in a month things will look totally different. One thing that is certain though, the best is yet to come from Chelsea and while the media and opposition fans are currently lapping it up, the…lion…will…once…again?.roar!!! KTBFFH
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