The Weekly Take, Issue 38: A Harsh Reality Check

Any match between two of London’s three leading clubs will have some added spice heading into it, and the recent game between Tottenham and Chelsea was no different.

However, this particular London derby failed to live up to the pre-game hype. Tottenham swept Chelsea aside, winning 3-1. What’s more, the final scoreline did not reflect how one-sided the game truly was. Such was Tottenham’s superiority that they could easily have beaten a discombobulated, disjointed Chelsea team by at least four goals.

But even more than that, this loss highlighted that Chelsea are still a long way from challenging for titles, whether domestically or in Europe. Although the appointment of Maurizio Sarri as head coach has somewhat improved the current situation at Stamford Bridge, the reality is that Sarri’s arrival at Chelsea has merely papered over the cracks at a team which is systemically and fundamentally flawed.

The first aspect which must be discussed is what Chelsea did during the previous off-season.

As has been the case in many of the last few transfer windows, Chelsea once again failed to improve their squad and overpaid for players. In terms of personnel, they are arguably even worse off than they were before the transfer window began.

While Jorginho has played fairly well for the Blues thus far, his transfer fee of ₤51.3 million was clearly an overpay on Chelsea’s part, especially considering the fact that his vastly superior teammate in midfield N’Golo Kanté was signed for ₤32 million.

Chelsea also inexplicably let Michy Batshuayi spend the season on loan at Valencia. Considering the fact that Chelsea now have only two strikers in their squad after Batshuayi’s departure, the move was a real head-scratcher.

Of course, one of the two elephants in the room has to be mentioned here: the departure of Thibaut Courtois.

Although Courtois had openly stated his intentions to leave Chelsea, the club only received ₤31.5 million and a season-long loan for Mateo Kovačić from Real Madrid. While Kovačić has had a good season thus far, this is in no way an adequate return for the Belgian superstar.

It gets even worse, though.

Shortly before Courtois left Chelsea, his replacement had already been signed: Kepa Arrizabalaga, whom Chelsea picked up from Athletic Bilbao for the record-breaking price of ₤72 million.

At the time of his signing, Kepa had only played in a major football league for two years, totalling 53 appearances for Bilbao. Kepa had also only earned one cap for Spain to that point.

Kepa is a solid goalkeeper, but he is certainly not deserving of the status of “world’s most expensive goalkeeper”. I can think of at least 10 goalkeepers, of which Courtois is one, who would or should command a higher transfer fee than the Basque shot-stopper.

The second elephant in the room is the transfer drama surrounding Eden Hazard.

There has been much speculation linking Chelsea’s best player with a move to Real Madrid. Although these transfer links have existed for a while now, they only strengthened after the winger’s spectacular World Cup campaign for Belgium, in which he helped them to third place and only finished behind Luka Modrić in the tournament MVP rankings.

It appears that the uncertainty surrounding Hazard has destabilized the locker room at Chelsea, as even though they started the season well, Chelsea seem to have lost some of their edge since, as could be seen in their loss to Spurs.

If Hazard leaves, his departure could prove to have a domino effect, causing even more players to leave and Chelsea to lose even more ground to rival teams.

Finally, with the exception of Kanté, this Chelsea team – Hazard included to some extent – seems to lack heart and fighting spirit compared to other leading teams.

Teams such as Liverpool, Manchester City, and Arsenal would certainly not have folded the way Chelsea did after falling behind against Spurs. This is a definite indictment on the team’s mentality – they just do not seem to want it badly enough. The Spurs match was especially egregious because it was a derby – the sort of match you would expect players to most desire a victory in.

Although Chelsea shuffled the deck during the off-season, it appears that they have only drawn a pair against their rivals’ full houses, flushes, and straights.