The hearts of Chelsea’s players must have sunk on Sunday afternoon as their bus approached a stadium which was wreathed with blue smoke and thronged with screaming blue supporters, but not for them.
Everton away was not the game they needed at this point in a long season. Everton played with the energy of desperate men while Chelsea very obviously didn't want to be there.
Unable to finish higher than third and unlikely to finish lower than fourth, Chelsea have little to play for in the league and have an FA Cup final coming up that nobody wants to be injured for.
On Saturday evening Leeds' Stuart Dallas had suffered a bad injury flinging himself into a challenge against Jack Grealish. It's difficult to imagine any Chelsea player putting his body on the line so bravely in the last four league matches. Typically, their lack of commitment means Dallas's Leeds have replaced Everton as the favourites to fill the third relegation place.
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Rüdiger and Christensen are joining <a class="search" href='javascript:window.parent.actionEventData({$contentId:"7.1213540", $action:"view", $target:"work"})' polopoly:contentid="7.1213540" polopoly:searchtag="tag_organisation">Real Madrid</a> and Barcelona on free transfers. Zouma and Tomori were both sold last summer, along with Marc Guéhi
As has become his habit Thomas Tuchel walked away from this one bemoaning individual errors. These have plagued Chelsea ever since the disastrous 4-1 defeat to Brentford, which seemed to shatter the confidence of their defence at the worst possible moment.
Four days later a stupid mix-up between Edouary Mendy and Antonio Rüdiger presented Karim Benzema with his hat-trick goal in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-final.
Without that goal an inspired 3-1 win in Madrid would have been enough to take Chelsea through, but instead the game went to extra time, Benzema scored his headed chance, Kai Havertz didn't, and Chelsea's time as champions of Europe was over.
Apparently unwilling to let Rüdiger and Mendy hog all the blame, Chelsea's defenders have adopted an "I'm Spartacus" approach to defensive disasters. Andreas Christensen set Arsenal on their way to victory at Stamford Bridge with a poor backpass, before Malang Sarr and Cesar Azpilicueta contributed shockers of their own.
Azpilicueta was again at fault against Everton, getting robbed in possession 20 yards out. The rash of mistakes has been very frustrating for Tuchel and he does not deal with frustration well.
Defence
But Tuchel won't have most of these guys to kick around for much longer. It seems incredible now to think that less than two years ago, when Antonio Rüdiger was being told by Frank Lampard that he had no future at Chelsea, he was competing for a place in central defence with Thiago Silva, Azpilicueta, Christensen, Kurt Zouma and Fikayo Tomori.
As it stands the only members of this group who will be at Chelsea next season are Azpilicueta, whose contract has one more year to run, and Silva, who will be 38 in September.
Rüdiger and Christensen are joining Real Madrid and Barcelona on free transfers. Zouma and Tomori were both sold last summer, along with now-England international Marc Guéhi, to raise funds for the £100 million signing of Romelu Lukaku. It hardly needs to be spelled out now that this was some very bad transfer business by Chelsea.
It may seem ominous that the strength of the Tuchel team has been rooted in a defence which is now dissolving, but the good news is that Chelsea now have the chance to remodel the team. The 3-4-2-1 system Tuchel introduced on his arrival has been a success, turning Chelsea from a rabble into Champions League winners in a matter of months. But for most of this season they have not scored enough to be contenders to win the Premier League.
A team that wants to win the league has to aim for at least 90 points. Two points per game, which is about the standard Tuchel’s Chelsea have consistently achieved, would have been competitive in the late 1990s, but is now miles off the pace.
A system with three central defenders made sense when Chelsea’s squad was full of central defenders.
Now that most of their centre backs are leaving they will clearly have to sign at least one new one, but also it would seem logical to return to a system that needs only two of them. The back four is the usual preference of dominant teams, such as the two who are currently competing for the Premier League title, and it was Tuchel’s regular system at PSG and Dortmund.
Back four
Currently Chelsea play with two defensive midfielders and two No 10s behind the striker. A back four opens up the possibility of a switch to 4-3-3, which would be to the advantage of a number of current players.
The current system lacks what the German coaches call No 8s – the midfielders who play ahead of the holding player but behind the front line: Kevin de Bruyne, Bernardo Silva in his midfield incarnation, Jordan Henderson, etc.
No 8 is the natural long-term position for Mason Mount, and it would also suit Conor Gallagher, who will be coming back from his loan spell at Crystal Palace expecting to compete for a starting place.
Havertz shares a lot of qualities with Roberto Firmino, who has been the leading Premier League player in that position over the last few years
Gallagher is an unusual player: he outruns and outpresses every other midfielder in the league, he scores a lot because he’s always ready to shoot on sight, and he contributes very little to build-up play. He is fast for a midfielder but not for a forward, and there is no obvious role for him in Chelsea’s current system. In a 4-3-3 he could play the position in which he has excelled all season for Palace.
Jorginho would also benefit from being the lone pivot in a three-man midfield, which has been his usual position with Italy and Napoli, rather than being half of a two-man midfield which sometimes leaves him with too much ground to cover.
The other big beneficiary could be Kai Havertz, whose talent has flickered for two seasons without bursting fully into life. Against Everton, Havertz was marginalised, pushed into a centre forward role where he was competing against the far stronger Yerry Mina, who took obvious pleasure in winding him up.
Qualities
A better position for Havertz is false No 9. Havertz shares a lot of qualities with Roberto Firmino, who has been the leading Premier League player in that position over the last few years; he’s also a better finisher than Firmino, but physically he’s not yet as strong. To make the most of his vision and skills, Havertz needs to combine with players who are prepared to run beyond him.
Timo Werner and Christian Pulisic have failed as No 10s, but they might yet fit the bill as wide strikers. As new owners arrive and old stalwarts depart, it’s plain there are big changes ahead for Chelsea, but there should be no trepidation: it was time for change anyway.
