Sporting directors Laurence Stewart and Paul Winstanley are coming under severe scrutiny as the Blues' chickens come home to roost
Chelsea's mid-season slump hadn't caused too much consternation among the fanbase; a dip in form was perhaps considered par for the course for a side that had largely overachieved in the first half of the campaign as the Blues pushed as high as second in the Premier League.
Ironically, despite dismal defeats to neighbours Fulham and struggling Ipswich, as well as frustrating draws with Crystal Palace and Bournemouth, it is the defeat to champions Manchester City that has been the catalyst for uproar. A performance lacking in energy and ambition against a wounded City side that was there for the taking after Chelsea took an early lead, the 3-1 reverse brutally exposed something much deeper as the deficiencies in the squad were laid bare.
The result leaves Chelsea down in sixth – exactly where Mauricio Pochettino had them when he departed in the summer – and sporting directors Laurence Stewart and Paul Winstanley once again facing some uncomfortable questions from a fanbase that expects a far better return for a £1 billion ($1.24bn) investment.
Getty Images SportFailed summer window
There is no doubt that Chelsea are suffering the consequences of their most recent transfer business, continuing a negative trend under the Clearlake-Boehly ownership and their sporting directors to date.
Although the unprecedented squad rebuild they have overseen over the past two years has been punctuated by unquestionable success stories, most notably signing Cole Palmer and bringing in a handsome profit from player sales, those are far outweighed by their failures in the transfer window.
Things have become particularly messy since the summer; of the eight signings who were immediately integrated into the first team, three were angling for an exit by the time the mid-season transfer window rolled around having grown frustrated over a lack of game time under Enzo Maresca.
Renato Veiga has already joined Juventus on loan, while Joao Felix – a £44.5 million ($58m) arrival who always seemed like an odd signing – is open to a move and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall – a £30m ($38) purchase who was supposedly a perfect fit for Maresca's system – has been told he is surplus to requirements.
AdvertisementAFPLaughable transfer decisions
If all of that wasn't alarming enough, there was also the shameful scramble to bring Trevoh Chalobah back to the club amid a defensive injury crisis – a Cobham graduate who was quite literally forced out of his boyhood club in the summer, put up for sale and made to train with the academy before Crystal Palace took him on loan. Chelsea came crawling back, of course, with Winstanley even calling the defender to convince him to return.
In terms of outgoings, the highly-unpopular decision to let another academy graduate leave in Conor Gallagher has also backfired, as the now-Atletico Madrid midfielder would be an incredibly useful asset in their current predicament, with Romeo Lavia struggling to overcome his injury problems and Dewsbury-Hall clearly not considered good enough.
Although it didn't attract as much attention, ditching goalkeeper Djordje Petrovic off the back of an impressive debut campaign and sending him on loan to sister club Strasbourg in favour of making Robert Sanchez No.1 now looks incredibly misguided, too.
Getty Images SportObvious problem areas
Indeed, Sanchez is the embodiment of a wider problem; much of the ire directed at the Chelsea hierarchy stems from the belief that two very obvious problem positions in the squad haven't been addressed after more than two years under their stewardship.
Although Edouard Mendy impressed for a while, the Blues haven't had a consistently world-class goalkeeper since Thibaut Courtois left for Real Madrid in 2018, and current incumbent Sanchez is arguably the worst option they've had over the past the six-and-a-half years. The situation is made all the more laughable by £72m ($91m) signing Kepa Arrizabalaga's impressive displays on loan at Bournemouth of late.
At the other end of the pitch, Chelsea haven't had an elite goal-scorer for even longer – not since the days Diego Costa roamed the frontline and terrorised Premier League defences. There has been a succession of big-money failures in the years since, from Alvaro Morata to Timo Werner, and although cost-effective Nicolas Jackson shows signs of promise, the Blues still haven't found a reliably prolific hitman.
It was as though their chickens came home to roost in the dismal defeat at Man City; at one end, Sanchez made his fifth error leading to a goal this season alone as Erling Haaland bagged the winner by lofting the ball over the stranded goalkeeper's head, while at the other, Jackson was largely anonymous as his goal-drought extended to seven games.
Chelsea's sporting directors – hailed as two of the best in the business – should surely have the nous between them to realise that an elite goalkeeper and striker should have been transfer priorities numbers one and two for the club for some time. As Sanchez is showing, these are positions that can win and lose you games.
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Getty Images SportDefensive disorder
The problem Chelsea have is that their issues now run deeper than two positions, with the defence becoming a real issue. There were the signs of a budding centre-back partnership between Levi Colwill and Wesley Fofana, but another potentially season-ending injury for the latter has laid bare some significant problems.
Perennially unconvincing Benoit Badiashile is sidelined, too, and Axel Disasi is another recent signing who seems destined to depart in the near future. That makes Chalobah and Tosin Adarabioyo the most senior centre-backs at Maresca's disposal, highlighting a dire lack of obvious, experienced leaders at the back following Thiago Silva's summer exit.
Colwill is the club's great homegrown hope in central defence and has captain potential, but he is still just 21 and prone to both lapses in concentration and rash rushes of blood to the head.
The policy of targeting younger players across the board has left Chelsea with a group of six first-team centre-backs who are all flawed in different ways; unreliable, injury-prone or inexperienced. The newly-restored Chalobah might be a fan favourite, but he was eaten alive by Haaland at the Etihad. It's another area that wasn't properly addressed in the summer and now must be at the earliest opportunity.