Chelsea settled for a 1-1 draw against Aston Villa at Stamford Bridge as they continued their woeful run. Frank Lampard’ side now has won just a single match in their last five games.
The result means that Chelsea have 26 points in 16 games and can go all the way down to 8th by the end of this gameweek. The disappointing result left Lampard admitting that ‘Chelsea are not title contenders’.
Chelsea were early contenders with a string of good games at the start of the season. However, with the start of mid-week matchdays, Chelsea have struggled for form.
Lampard slammed the packed schedule complaining that he ‘would not be able to play the same squad in 48 hours’. But given Chelsea’s squad depth, it should never have been an issue.
Chelsea and Lampard Under Pressure?
After spending over £220 million in times where most clubs are struggling financially, Lampard is under a lot of pressure to deliver. The likes of Timo Werner, Kai Havertz, Hakim Ziyech, Eduardo Mendy, and Ben Chilwell showed early promise but have failed to deliver consistently.
After the horror-show at Arsenal, Lampard informed that he would make changes to avoid another ‘lazy display’. He picked Olivier Giroud ahead of Tammy Abraham and Werner and the move paid off.
But Dean Smith’s side kept pressing for a goal and they were eventually rewarded.
Smart squad rotation seems to be a simple solution for Chelsea but not so simple when seen from Lampard’s eyes. He currently has Tammy, Werner, and Giroud fighting for the center-forward position. Mason Mount has been switching positions all season and Havertz, Hudson-Odio, Pulisic, and Ziyech take the wings.
“People wanted to talk us up as title contenders but I never accepted that was the case because we are not there. That takes time to build. Games like Saturday are ones we have to learn a very big lesson from, everybody myself included because when I see that in the first half today, I don’t like it. That can’t happen.
– Frank Lampard after Arsenal loss
Lampard seems to be in a dilemma to find his strongest squad and tends to mix up the position of his main players. Havertz and Werner have not got close to what they used to do in the Bundesliga.
The season is not over yet and were close to the half-way mark. At this stage the top 6 seems to be changing after every game. If Lampard can figure out his squad’s weakness in time, we might have a new Chelsea in the new year.
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