Chelsea's results against top half/rival sides: 0 - 2 Liverpool 3 - 3 Soton 0 - 0 Man Utd 0 - 0 Spurs 0 - 1 Everton 1 - 2 Wolves 1 - 3 Arsenal 1 - 1 Villa 1 - 3 Man City P9 W0 D4 L5 F7 A15 The emperor has no clothes.
Crunching similar numbers for us: 0 - 1 Everton 5 - 2 Soton 6 - 1 Man Utd 2 - 0 Man City 0 - 0 Chelsea 2 - 0 Arsenal 1 - 2 Liverpool 0 - 2 Leicester 1 - 1 Wolves P9 W4 D2 L3 F17 A9 Moral of the story? If we'd stop playing like Burnley against teams like Burnley, we'd be flying.
The Athletic are reporting that Chelsea have already begun discussing other potential candidates to take over from Lampard. They also reported that he's fallen out with some of the players, which would explain the gigantic dip in their performances. It was only 2 or 3 weeks ago that they were being heralded as title challengers. Now they're a measly 3 points in front of Arsenal, who have had a catastrophic season thus far. I think we all know how this is going to end. Once you lose the dressing room, it's already over. It's just a matter of 'when' rather than 'if' at this stage...
Has he lost the dressing room, though? They started well against City, then collapsed badly. He's got a couple of winnable games coming up (Morecambe, Fulham, assuming that goes ahead), so they could get back on track. A bit of a tough run after that. One result can turn a season, as the **** ****s showed against your lot.
It could well be, alternatively I think it’s just so tight in the league right now that a team who has a good run for a few weeks just shoots up the table because the points difference is so narrow - only 11 from 1st to 14th. Lose or draw a few and the opposite happens. We did exactly the same, and now Ole is having his annual respite period in 2nd - give it a few weeks and they’ll get turned over once or twice and all the same questions will resurface. It’s so tight in the league this season that I’d be wary of reading too much into teams fluctuating from challengers to low top-10.
Although I agree that he probably should get more time, the reality is someone as trigger happy as Abramovich isn't likely to see it that way. He's got rid of popular Chelsea managers before and, despite Lampard's service to Chelsea as a player, I don't think his club legend status will be factored in with regards to his performance as a manager (rightly so). Their signings are still adapting to the league and country, they're in the last 16 for the Champions League and they're still not that far off the top of the table. But Abramovich may look at the money spent in the Summer and see they're 5 points worse off than this time last season. In his head, there are other managers who could get more of a tune out of Havertz and Werner, whilst improving the consistency of results. This was always going to be the risk when he was appointed by a historically ruthless owner and even moreso after they spent £250m+ last Summer.
Sacked by Sheffield Wednesday after 10 games, because he asked for a transfer budget, allegedly. They've won both games since he left, though.
Big Sams maybe a very short stint at WBA - I think he has already realised he can't keep them up and he will resign citing COVID as the reason thus keeping his never relegated tag intact.
He's blaming Brexit for disrupting his transfer plans...which is a bit rich given that he was running his big fat mouth about its benefits on TalkShite a couple of years ago... https://www.balls.ie/football/sam-allardyce-brexit-458221 Twat! (Big Fat Sam of course!)
I can't see Chelsea getting rid of Lampard - but I am trying to apply commonsense. He was allowed to spend £220M in the last window and has a very big squad of quality players (on paper at least). Why trust him with that if you're prepared to sack him after 4 or 5 bad results? Earlier in the season, they hasd a long unbeaten run and progressed in the CL. He was widely praised, although pundits should recognise that he's still a novice in management and he will make mistakes even if results may belie that sometimes. They should give him the rest of the season at the very least to see what he can get from this expensive group of players they backed him to assemble.
Have you met their owner? This is the same guy who sacked Ancelotti one year after winning a league and cup double. He also sacked di Matteo a few months after winning the Champions League and FA Cup. He’s not exactly someone who’s renowned for his patience.
If a CL slot (via whatever means) is under threat, the Chelsky manager is done. They really need the money with UEFA FFP on the prowl. Any goodwill earned via previous silverware counts for nothing. Happened to Jose, RdM etc. Happens even quicker for managers with less than that (AVB etc) .
You're talking about a club that spent a cumulative total of £260m over 4 seasons on Batshuayi, Zappacosta, Drinkwater, Bakayoko, Morata and Kepa. Money is literally not an object.
I am not sure that all the purchases were Lampards choices - He has never looked that keen on Havertz for sure, he looks to me like a player the owner liked and who he could get, Shoe horning Havertz (the owners player) and Mount (Lampards player) is difficult. I think that Ziyech is another they could get for a good price where the manager would like to carry on with his homegrown player (Hudson-Odoi). Abraham ahead of Giroud has also looked odd at times and I am not sure that Lampard knows his best side. Zouma over Rudiger is another that from where I sit looks a strange decision. Finally I am not sure that they resolved the goal keeping issue the new keeper is a better shot stopper (though a lot come off of him and don't go that far from goal), he doesn't look great at crosses and distribution is not fabulous not much of an upgrade on Kepa.
On the other hand, given Uncle Roman's living in a different tax bolthole, he's not quite as easy to reach for when it's time to pull the trigger
They bought a fair few players and spent a lot of money without improving their team in the short term. A top keeper and centre half should have been priorities from what I've seen of them. It does smack of the players being bought above the coach's head.
