When in the summer of 2020 Chelsea splashed the cash and spent over £200million on new signings, rival Premier league clubs were stunned because it was in the middle of COVID-19 affecting football revenue. It was obvious Roman Abrahamovich had given Frank Lampard all he wanted to build a title winning team. By Abrahamovich’s standards, the veteran had no excuse for failing to deliver.
As soon as the season started, Chelsea started to roll over teams. They were winning and picking up the points. They were unbeaten in 13 games across all competitions. It was this form that made Frank lampard to declare in November 2020 that Chelsea fans could dream of the league.
There’s certainly nothing wrong with the fans thinking that [winning title]. Great to have them back, their input was huge, the noise they made was huge.”You can see how excited they are at the end that we are top of the league.
Fast forward to the end of 2020/21 season, he was gone. Consecutive Premier league defeats to the likes Man City , Fulham and Leicester City meant Frank Lampard would be relieved of his duties.
Even though at he led the team to the summit of the Premier league at some times during his reign, his team set up and tactics never really convinced skeptics. To some observers, he had the players but he couldn’t get the best out of his players.
By the time he was gone, he was replaced with Thomas Tuchel; an astute tactician. The defence that was leaky under the reign of Frank Lampard was plugged. The team conceded only two goals in 10 games under Tuchel whereas under Lampard, the team conceded a goal per game. When Lampard was sacked, Chelsea were 9th in the Premier league, but at the end of the season, they were in the top 4.
The 3-4-3 employed by Tuchel proved to be very effective. Even though Timo Werner was wasteful upfront, goal scoring burden was shared uniformly throughout the scored. 3 victories over Pep Guardiola’s Man City proved Thomas Tuchel belonged in the class Jurgen Klopp in the ranks of great coaches. By the end of the season, Chelsea were champions of Europe.
The most glaring need in the team is the need for a striker. Chelsea spent a club record of £97.5million on Romelu Lukaku. 15 minutes into his debut, he scored a debut goal. A flurry of goals followed for the Belgian but his return has been reduced by injuries and a lack of efficiency in front of goal. Currently, the team has been experiencing some form of inconsistencies recently but the good news is that the man that turned it around initially is still in the dug out.
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