Since the 2015/2016 season, Chelsea London has always finished in the top 5 of the Premier League. In 2017, the club even managed to become the champion of England, ahead of Tottenham by 7 points. In the 2022/2023 season, the start was not very successful. The club beat Everton, but then drew with Tottenham and lost to Leeds in a devastating way. After that, the pensioners again took over (over Leicester), but lost to Southampton. Despite two subsequent victories, over West Ham and Crystal Palace, Thomas Tuchel lost his coaching position. Graham Potter from Brighton took the place of the dismissed mentor, but he did not bring the desired changes either.
Terrible Chelsea streak – anti-record of the decade
The new management of the club, led by Tod Boely, has placed high hopes on the coach and allocated him a lot of money for transfers, but so far this has not brought the desired results. Chelsea was able to disappoint most of the fans, as it did not justify even the cautious forecasts of dailysports.net and other experts.
February turned out to be a real nightmare for the London club and its fans: the club issued an anti-record streak in its recent history:
- January 21 – draw 0:0 with Liverpool;
- February 3 – draw 0:0 with Fukleham;
- February 11 – draw 1:1 with West Ham;
- February 15 – defeat from Borussia D 0: 1;
- February 18 – defeated by Southampton 0:1;
- February 26 – defeated by Tottenham 0:2.
In total, for 7 matches (6 in the Premier League and 1 in the Champions League), Graham Potter’s wards won 0 matches, scored only 1 goal and conceded 5.
Causes of failure and their solution
There are a number of reasons for Chelsea’s poor run of performances, including:
- The lack of a team game among the players. Over the last season (2 transfer windows), the team has received a dozen and a half new players from different leagues who need to adapt to the new team.
- Bloated team composition. The activity of signing newcomers complicates the work of the coaching staff.
- Psychological pressure. Chelsea have spent more than €600m on transfers over the past year, according to Dailysports news, sometimes overpaying for players significantly. High prices put pressure on both the players and the headquarters, who must prove that these expenses are not in vain.
- Lack of coaching experience. Graham Potter has never coached such a big club before. His previous places of work are Östersund, Swansea and Brighton, which are not called giants.
- Tight calendar. 5 matches in the shortest month of the year is not much, but not a little.
Whatever it was, but the results of Chelsea so far look depressing. And the American owners are faced with a dilemma: you can fire Potter now, or you can give him time. In the first case, by inviting an eminent motivating coach, there is a chance to improve the standings, but the squad will have to be rebuilt. Secondly, it is unlikely that Graham will lift the club above the middle of the table this year, but at the end of the season he will have enough time to build a team.