IT'S not often a consensus is achieved so early in the season, but by the end of October one had seemingly been reached on the look of the Premier League’s top four. So strong had Liverpool, Manchester City, Leicester City and Chelsea been in setting the early pace, and the others so feeble in keeping up with them, that Champions League qualification looked all but settled.
A lot has changed since then. Rather than separating into The Top Four and The Rest, the Premier League became Liverpool versus The Rest. Behind them, City have managed to stay closest while Leicester and Chelsea in particular have dropped off. Going on the form book of the past month or two, Frank Lampard’s side are underdogs in the scrap for Champions League football.
The man himself admitted as much after the January transfer window closed without a single new signing arriving at Stamford Bridge. Lampard made his frustrations clear at the time and has appeared burdened ever since. The refreshing exuberance of the first few months of the season is long gone and instead there is once again a toxic air around the club.
Of course, injuries have been a major factor in Chelsea’s recent struggles. Lampard has been unable to call on his top scorer, Tammy Abraham, for a number of weeks with Christian Pulisic sidelined just as the American was becoming a key figure for the Blues after a difficult start to life in the Premier League. N’Golo Kante, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Ruben Loftus-Cheek have also been ruled out for spells of varying length.
Lampard's message to his players on top four battle: "They have to rise to that challenge. If you want to play for Chelsea you have to." #CFC #CHETOT
— Nizaar Kinsella (@NizaarKinsella) February 21, 2020
And yet this doesn’t fully explain Chelsea’s dramatic downturn. From front to back, the Blues seem to have lost their focus. Chances are being spurned in front of goal while mistakes are being made in goal. Lampard appears closer to answers than anyone else, but has more than once demanded more from a squad he is quickly losing faith in.
“It’s a mindset,” he said after Chelsea allowed two points to slip in a draw against Bournemouth on Saturday. “Every game’s different, but you have to have a mindset within the group, on the pitch, because those things are not unexpected, We spoke at half-time, for instance, about what may happen, what they may do, and then you rely on the players on the pitch. So together they have to solve issues. It’s been a problem.
“It’s always collective. As a group, we can’t be happy with it. This group has young players and experienced players and you can’t be happy when you have moments when you concede like that. I don’t think it matters how young you are, it isn’t naivety, I think there is a concentration issue. We have to concentrate even more."
Lampard’s remarks on Chelsea’s mentality are eerily similar to what Maurizio Sarri had to say about this group of players last season. The Italian labelled his players “weak” as they failed to live up to his standards. Sarri felt he had no chance of changing this, leaving for Juventus in the summer, but Lampard was hired as the man to eradicate this culture at the club. So far he is failing in this.
As the polite, well-spoken darling of the English media, he has been given an easy ride to date. Compare the esteem the Chelsea manager is still held in, even after a run of such poor results, with the criticism Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has faced this season. By what measure are Lampard’s Chelseas outperforming Solskjaer’s Manchester United?
Initially, Lampard made the Chelsea job look easy. His early success hinted at a figure who understood and grasped the values of the club like no other. Now, though, he risks becoming just another manager to be distorted by whatever forces make the Stamford Bridge dressing room such a challenging place to be. Rather than eradicating Chelsea’s toxic culture, Lampard is being engulfed by it.
