Chelsea will next be in action later tonight. They’ll take on Leicester City at the King Power Stadium in a matter of minutes, and it’s a game they really need to win in order to get back into the top four race. (Here is the Chelsea team news link and the Chelsea starting XI prediction link).
The Blues splashed the cash, especially in the final third but the goals simply are not coming. They’ve only scored eight times in their last seven, and that’s resulted in just two wins over that span. They are eighth in the table, but two of the teams in front of them have a game in hand.
Despite spending well over 200 million GBP on beefing up the roster this summer, it seems they’re already out of the title race. So they must press on for a top four slot, and fortunately, they are only five points off the pace for that benchmark.
“Leicester are in the race and there are others, but we have to not consider the race too much as it stands,” manager Frank Lampard said yesterday, ahead of the big Leicester clash.
“When people were touting us as title challengers, we do have the squad when you look at the composition of it — but it’s very young, particularly in the forward areas. We don’t have the history of players in those areas that this club has had before, who are goal machines or assist machines that win you games.
“With our team it’s potential. We haven’t got Eden Hazard contributing 50 percent of goals or assists. We haven’t got a Diego Costa scoring 30 goals.”
Lampard is saying all the right things, one could argue, or at least espousing the narratives he has to in order to ease the pressure on him right now. Chelsea are falling well short of expectations and the buck stops with him, so it won’t be long until his seat warms.
Christian Pulisic, who gave a really interesting interview and attention grabbing photo shoot to GQ, has played well, but hasn’t produced on the scoresheet. Timo Werner and Kai Havertz, two big money Germans acquired in the summer, look like real expensive flops right now. Although you have to give some leeway to the latter, as he had a battle with COVID-19.
Another addition, Hakim Ziyech, has been in and out of the lineup due to injury. While Lampard has a plethora of options, and that could be in a problem within itself, none of these options are really strong, because they’re simply not scoring and/or racking up the assists.
Lampard contined:
“We are developing those players and I believe in them strongly, but at the moment we are not quite where other teams around us maybe are at the front end of the pitch. For us, there could be tough times.”
So where does Lamps go from here? Clearly, he hasn’t figured out the rest rotation and lineup as of yet. Injuries have inhibited that, sure, but he still needs to get everyone on the same page and then hope they coalesce together. Only a consistent formation of the same guys can do that.
Here’s the starting lineup against Leicester.
Tonight's team to take on Leicester! ? #LEICHE pic.twitter.com/PFZC4anlxN
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) January 19, 2021
The big news there is a start for Callum Hudson-Odoi, who Lampard admitted should have deserved to start at Fulham. After the very ugly win at Craven Cottage, lots of Chelsea fans, on social media, were calling for him to be upgraded to the starting lineup.
We’ll see if he’s the stir that straws the drink.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank, partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Tribune and SB Nation. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.