Season’s review…so far

It’s a new year, the 2nd half of the season is here, the business end as we like to call it. For all Chelsea fans – despite its dire end – 2010 is not a year we would forget too soon. The club’s first double, achieved with entertaining football not seen at the Shed end since the 90’s, goal-scoring gluts not seen since the 60s, all characterized arguably the most successful season in our beloved club’s history. However, now is not the time to reminisce what is now history, but rather we should be focused on what lies ahead. Though Chelsea is passing through a tough period at the moment, the next 7 years should be of more concern. The “30-somethings”, the young players, Carlo’s future and the current transfer policy are key areas of discussion, albeit for another day.

SEASON’S DAWN

Any team can be hit with injuries, but there are key players whose injuries mean things don’t exactly run smoothly. It could be relative to available cover for these players and their general importance to the team, such as Lampard, Terry, Alex and as a result Yury Zhirkov and Yossi Benayoun, became the only other creative influences for backup.

The attacking football Chelsea exhibited last season and early this season saw most of our goals come from the left side, Cole and Malouda constantly interchanging, well ‘linked’ by Lampard. With a brand of football that involves playing the ball on the ground, you obviously need creative midfielders, which we had in Lampard, Ballack, Deco and Joey Cole. We signed only Yossi Benayoun to replace the 3 we lost over the summer – adding Yury and not counting Josh – we presently have only 2.5 creative midfielders at the club. While Lampard was still in the first team, Chelsea played similarly to last season and scored lots of goals, earning praises from the media. Even when Lamps missed the first Champions League game of the season through injury, Yossi was there to create 2 goals in a 4-1 win on his first start. Our first loss then came away at Man City. No lamps (injured), no Yoss (injured), no Yury (benched) and Ramires was piss-poor throughout and gave the ball away for the lone goal of the game. We then beat Arsenal, won against Blackburn and Wolves with Yury providing the main source of creativity in a dull, but solid Chelsea side.

‘CRISIS’ TALK

I don’t believe we were or are in any crisis, it’s all a series of unfortunate events, helped by some horrible decisions at the club. Our major problem is clearly depth, and if players like Matic and Mancienne weren’t given season loans, they could have been recalled to assuage the injury crisis. However, a club in crisis wouldn’t be winless in 6 games and still be in the top four in the league, 7 points away from the top. Much has been said about our attack being impotent, what are they to do with Mikel, Ramires and Essien behind them? They are not exactly the most creative of midfields, but essentially three defensive midfielders and, in my opinion, a recipe for very boring football. I would have welcomed a traditional 4-4-2 formation with Malouda and Kalou on the wings, but who am I to suggest the players we play, certainly not Emenalo and I refuse to go into the Wilkins discussion.

Taking each game one by one, a reason for each loss, or draw, should make you realize that your team is not as bad the media portray them to be.

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Sunderland: This loss was down to nothing more than Paulo playing Center Half, most calamitous decision of the season. The Absence of our first choice centre backs . It’s worthy to note that Yury almost gave us an early lead in his last game till date with a run even better than Onuoha’s. Lastly, no Essien.

Birmingham: Playing an injured Alex, 30-something shots that wouldn’t just go in and Kalou being Kalou or Kalou-less as the Chelsea Fancast crew would say. Still no Essien.

Newcastle: Conceded a silly goal courtesy an error from the same injured player (Mikel and Petr Cech also took part in this comedy of errors), who should have been recovering from surgery by this point. Still no Essien, heads had dropped and confidence was low.

Everton: Ferreira at fault for a late goal. I’m sorry but I don’t think he should be playing high level games. Either way there’s nothing wrong with a draw against Everton. Essien was back for this one and Drogba scored his first goal for Chelsea in this fixture since his effort against Arsenal on October 3rd.

Tottenham: Lampard’s return. Chelsea showed a marked improvement in the second half with Drogba and Lampard coming off the bench, with the former scoring an equalizer in a 1-1 draw, but unfortunately missing a stoppage time penalty to clinch three points.

Arsenal: A pretty balanced game until we decided to start the second half with a high defensive line against Theo Walcott and managed to give the ball away, twice! This was not the Chelsea of last season.

Bolton: Poor first half, similar to what we’ve seen recently. If the offside had been called and we didn’t score, the alleged crisis talk would have gained even more momentum.

Anyone who watched the second half of the Bolton game would’ve noticed one major thing. We were able to “play our football”, something the boss has stressed in recent weeks. Good passing, good movement, Cole’s marauding runs and most of all, confidence, were clearly visible. Looking like the old Chelsea, the ‘crisis’ is gone. It’s not a coincidence that our first league win in ages has come when Lampard is back in the side. He’s our best attacking midfielder, gives us lots of goals and understands the attackers better than anyone else. One only needs to look to the pass he gave Drogba before the Ivorian hit the upright to see that he’s what we’ve been missing.

I look forward to the remainder of the season and hope we can also make signings to bolster our squad for now and the future, and also involve our young players more as against playing players out of position.

Follow Latoye on Twitter – @BuffyCFC