> Premier League preview No3: Chelsea > The pressure is on Roberto Di Matteo to match > > Champions League glory. But how much time will the manager be given? > Dominic Fifield > guardian.co.uk, Tue 7 Aug 2012 09.00 BST > > Guardian writers' predicted position: 3rd (NB: this is not necessarily Dominic Fifield's prediction, but the average of our writers' tips) > Last season's position: 6th > Odds to win the league: 9-2 > > The Roman Abramovich era at Stamford Bridge has entered a new phase. The single star embroidered on Chelsea's shirts, together with the chorus of "champions of Europe" sure to accompany the team wherever they play this term, will provide a constant reminder of Munich in May and a campaign that was transformed from mess to miracle. Yet, if last season provided a sense of satisfaction, ambition continues to smoulder at this club. The demand laid down now from on high is to build upon giddy success. > > Chelsea have already delivered a statement of intent this summer. Their lavish spending in this closed season market, unparalleled to date among those expected to contend for the Premier League, is recognition of domestic inadequacy last time around. The Champions League triumph, together with the FA Cup claimed at Wembley, served to mask â albeit gloriously â the lowest finish of the Abramovich era. > > Sixth was unacceptable and culpability did not rest solely with André Villas-Boas and his choked tenure as manager. The tasks with which the Portuguese had been charged, reinvigoration of a squad and reinvention of their playing style, are essentially still being addressed. It was just the diplomacy around their execution that was lacking. Roberto Di Matteo must implement change while maintaining a more persuasive title challenge this time round. > > The margins by which success will be gauged are terrifyingly slim, but Di Matteo will be relishing the opportunity to construct a team bolstered by so many mouth-watering new arrivals. Oscar dos Santos Emboaba Júnior (or simply "Oscar") is Brazil's No10 and Chelsea's new No11, a 20-year-old of jaw-dropping talent and vision who could illuminate the English top flight. Eden Hazard had just that effect in France after emerging as a teenager with Lille, a club he carried to a first league title in 56 years in 2011. That pair alone cost in excess of £50m, with the Germany international Marko Marin a relatively cheap addition at £7m from Werder Bremen, to whom Kevin de Bruyne has been loaned. Wigan's Victor Moses is potentially still to come. > > The blueprint is Barcelona-esque, a gaggle of tricky, skilful attackers to provide a blur of movement and leave opponents dizzy and distracted. If they realise their potential and combine with last season's inspiration, Juan Mata, there will be fluid, creative attacking football aplenty to appreciate in SW6. > > Finding a formula to incorporate so many similar players while maintaining a level of stinginess at the back will test Di Matteo, though he will presumably be able to mix and match his attackers at will. The Italian has already spoken enthusiastically about the choices available to him. "Moving between lines and rotation can be an attacking threat for us," he said. "It makes us more difficult to be marked and more unpredictable. However, we also need width in the game so it's not just always coming between the lines: it's about giving width to the team as well. There aren't going to be radical changes but, inevitably, we are going to change a bit the way we play with the integration of the new players." > > There should be variety to the team's approach, the rather rigid feel from recent seasons cast aside. Opponents will be wary of the attacking talent that is likely to pour at them, even if it will take time for all â including Mata after an exhausting summer that took in Euro 2012 and the Olympics â to find their rhythm. > > Certainly, Chelsea will feel rather unfamiliar. Gone is the brawn and sheer muscular presence of Didier Drogba as this team's attacking focal point. Absent, too, from this time last year are Nicolas Anelka and Salomon Kalou. Where once this side bullied, now they will seek to dazzle. The onus is on Fernando Torres, no longer shivering in the Ivorian's shadow, to take centre stage, the Spaniard returning to this club having claimed the golden boot at Euro 2012 but still with much to prove in London. > > Torres should not be wanting for opportunities given the supply line that has been constructed at his back. It is tempting to suggest all the excuses for underachievement to date, and seven league goals in 46 appearances is underwhelming despite the assists he has provided en route, have been stripped away. Torres now has to deliver not least because, unless a Hulk or Andre Schürrle is added to the ranks, Chelsea arguably lack quality cover at centre-forward. > > Yet, if the club and some of its key playing personnel have reason to attack the new campaign with points to prove, the manager's own motivation is clearest of all. A year ago, Di Matteo was Villas-Boas' right-hand man, his own coaching career having apparently been derailed at West Bromwich Albion. He ended last term, remarkably, as a European Cup-winning manager but, for all the inevitable public insistence to the contrary, confirmation of his appointment on a permanent basis felt as if it was only delivered with a certain reluctance and once Pep Guardiola had made it abundantly clear he intended to take a year-long sabbatical after leaving Camp Nou. > > Now Di Matteo, a figure rightly lauded by the supporters, will confront his first campaign in charge with Guardiola an unnerving presence on the fringes. The Italian will not be alone in feeling vaguely threatened â Chelsea are not the only club to have been entranced by what the Catalan achieved in his four years at Barça â but any stutter could surely have implications for his prospects of seeing out a two-year contract. Heaven forbid should Chelsea stumble in the new year, as they have done in the last two seasons. After all, Di Matteo himself has proved what can be achieved when change is instigated by a hierarchy's midterm panic. > > The size of the task that now awaits is arguably greater than that he took on last year. His mission back in March was primarily to salvage a season, something he achieved by reverting to basics to instil confidence into a disillusioned squad and tap into their established qualities. His approach was pure pragmatism. Now the "project", to revert to Villas-Boas's jargon, is more progressive. Di Matteo must prove he is not merely a stopgap until Guardiola decides his batteries are recharged, but the long-term answer: a manager to restore Chelsea to the pinnacle in the Premier League with a team almost entirely overhauled from that of the glittering José Mourinho era. He has already made stunning history at this club. Now he must initiate a glorious future. > > Is that realistic? Instinct suggests it would constitute a staggering achievement to lead Chelsea to the title this term given they ended 25 points adrift of both Manchester clubs in May, with three other rivals also far more consistent over the campaign. The sheer number of key ins-and-outs at Stamford Bridge offers a reminder of continuous transition, yet time is never afforded to this club's management and it is unlikely Abramovich has spent the summer preparing to be patient. The transfer outlay is evidence of that much. Yet, just as was the case a year ago, it is time that is most desperately required. > > Hazard, Oscar, Marin and any other new arrivals secured before the closure of the transfer window will need to bed in and find their feet. Even established players, from Frank Lampard to Ramires, may have to adjust to tweaked positions and new demands. The manager, too, is not playing catchup but attempting to set the pace. This is all alien. Di Matteo and his players must treat it as an opportunity to be seized. Pre-season has been a stagger, preparations hampered by Euro 2012, the Olympics and the unsettling nature of John Terry's trial at Westminster magistrates' court. > > Now, somehow, they must conjure a method of hitting the ground running as the campaign proper commences. Munich is merely a glorious memory. The real challenge lies ahead.
"There aren't going to be radical changes but, inevitably, we are going to change a bit the way we play with the integration of the new players." - RDM Bit disappointing surely?
Unless the Russian has set a target of "avoid relegation this season" I think we all have to face the fact that RDM is unlikely to be in the job next season. I'm not wumming, I'm merely stating my honestly held opinion. Better managers than RDM have been sacked. If I'm wrong, I will be the first to admit it.
