The Fall of Chelsea - “From European champions to midtable in three years”
Blogs

The Fall of Chelsea - “From European champions to midtable in three years”

24/04/24 09:00

Chelsea travelled to the Emirates Stadium last night to experience one of their most embarrassing defeats in living memory. The Gunners ran away with a five-nil win with Kai Havertz scoring two, to put Arsenal four points clear at the top of the table.

Not too long ago these clubs were the absolute opposite, Arsenal were bullied by the other big clubs regularly but no other club had a record against them like Chelsea.

The infamous 6-0 on Arsene Wenger’s 1000th game, doing the double over arsenal to stop them beating Leicester to the title, there are many moments in recent history showing Chelsea’s superiority over their London rivals.

Last night was finally the other way around and just shows how big the gap is between the two sides. Chelsea have gone from European champions to mid-table in three years. In those same three years, Arteta has taken Arsenal from successive 8th place finishes to successive title charges.

Pochettino

When you see what Arteta has done for Arsenal you can’t help but look at the other bench and wonder what Mauricio Pochettino is doing at Chelsea.

The Argentine came with a lot of promise, as we all remembered his relatively successful time at Spurs which won him the Paris Saint-Germain job.

But playing one game without Cole Palmer transforms a competitive 1-0 loss to an absolute capitulation at one of their biggest rivals. The biggest insult to Chelsea is that it was over in the 70th minute and Arsenal made four substitutions in one move to rotate and give players minutes, something you’d never imagine Arteta doing in a big match.

The truth is Chelsea are just that bad that as much as we joke about them being mid table they play like it too, not too much separates this match from Arsenal’s demolition of Crystal Palace back in January.

It’s hard to think of a single improvement under Pochettino from last season. The signing of Nicholas Jackson is hilarious as despite the Senegalese striker getting double figures in goals, his finishing has never looked to be the quality of a top Premier League striker.

Cole Palmer is the only positive for the Blues as in a poor season where Chelsea have no chances of any success and are midtable, the English midfielder has somehow managed to challenge for the Golden Boot and has a case to make for PFL Player of the Season.

It’s hard to see where Chelsea go from here as there will be more games like this against top opposition and the champions league nights feel a long way away for the Blues right now.

Pochettino may not be sacked this week or even this season but it feels like they’re slowly drifting towards that decision if the results stay the same.

Chelsea fans got to enjoy a great 20 years supporting their club but now they’re going to have to get used to what happened in the previous 100 as right now the true pride of London wears Red.

Videos

See more
Why Birmingham City’s Jay Stansfield is worth every penny!
Tom Williams and Ashley Adamson-Edwards give their thoughts on Birmingham City's win over Wrexham in League One.
West Brom are on FIRE as Notts County continue their dominance! | Extra-Time Football Park
Football Park is back with Episode 6 of Extra-Time, a weekly podcast dedicated to the EFL leagues and lower.
Why you CANNOT write off Sheffield United this season!
Tom Williams and Ashley Adamson-Edwards give their take after Sheffield United defeat Hull City in the EFL Championship.

Join our newsletter

Become a part of our community and never miss an update from Football Park.