At the start of December, it was hard to refute Chelsea’s ‘title-contending’ credentials considering how well Frank Lampard had got his team playing; solid at the back and frightening up-top. 

Fast forward to the present day and it seems as if  Lampard’s days are numbered after tail spinning out of a 17-game unbeaten run with five defeats in their last eight leaving the Blues eight points adrift of top spot.

So where did it all go wrong for Chelsea?

Five key games

Chelsea 4-0 Crystal Palace

When Chelsea welcomed Palace to Stamford Bridge back in October, it was the first time five of the £200m new signings – Timo Werner, Kai Havertz, Ben Chilwell, Thiago Silva and Édouard Mendy- had all started a match together.

It was a must-win game after disappointing results against Liverpool, West Bromwich Albion and Tottenham Hotspur and with over half of the side comprised of fresh faces, the worry was that they would not click on the pitch.

A 4-0 victory was an emphatic response.

The issue, however, was the fact the stand-out performers from the win here and opening day 3-1 triumph at Brighton & Hove Albion did not include the new recruits.

Chilwell had a great debut against Palace – scoring and grabbing an assist – and Mendy wasn’t too troubled in his first few matches, but Silva made a clear error leading to a goal a game prior against West Brom and Havertz massively underperformed in the league despite scoring a hat-trick against Barnsley in the EFL Cup.

As for Werner, the German forward showed no signs of scoring while Hakim Ziyech was still out injured.

Signs of things to come, perhaps?

Chelsea 3-1 Leeds

In mid-October, everything started to click for Chelsea’s summer imports.

Werner opened his league account with a brace against Southampton, Ziyech returned to fitness and began to wield his magic down the right, Chilwell continued to impress on the left flank, while Silva and Mendy showcased a complete contrast to the defence horrors of the season prior.

With all the pieces finally falling in place, the Blues were heading for a month-long winning-streak and looked like serious title contenders going into their clash with arch-rivals Leeds United on December 5th.

The 2,000 supporters who attended the match witnessed Lampard’s men produce their most impressive victory to date as they came from behind to beat Marcelo Bielsa’s Whites – outworking them in the process.

Goals from Oliver Giroud – who marked his first league start of the season with his fifth goal of the week after scoring all four of Chelsea’s Champions League goals away to Sevilla – Zouma and Christian Pulisic cancelled out former Blues striker Patrick Bamford’s early opener.

Despite assisting Pulisic’s late third, attentions turn to Werner yet again after missing possibly the easiest goal-scoring chances in Premier League history; hitting the underside of the bar from point-blank before Leeds cleared.

Concerning, to say the least…

Everton 1-0 Chelsea

It was all going quite swimmingly for Chelsea at this point.

The SW6 outfit had won four of their last five Premier League games (drawn one) – no other side were on a longer unbeaten run than the Blues (nine – won five, drawn four) – and sat at the summit by one point following their Leeds victory. 

But everything went downhill when Lampard took his team up to Merseyside to visit old boss Carlo Ancellotti’s high-flying Everton side.

Gylfi Sigurdsson’s first-half penalty handed Chelsea their second defeat of the season and ended their 17-game unbeaten run in the process.

Conceding just two goals in seven Premier League games prior to this match, it was a genuine surprise when Mendy committed a reckless challenge on Dominic Calvert-Lewin which led to the Toffee’s opening goal.

Lampard said after the match it provided a dose of reality to those who said his side can win the league.

A remark that has become seemingly apparent.

Arsenal 3-1 Chelsea

A second successive defeat to Wolverhampton Wanderers was followed by a comprehensive win over West Ham, but then came the real test –a big Boxing Day London derby.

Arsenal were languishing in their lowest league position since 1982 with no domestic wins since 1st November, so it was only right that Chelsea handed Mikel Arteta a 3-1 victory.

Alexandre Lacazette scored from the spot before Granit Xhaka curled in a superb free-kick minutes later.

Bukayo Saka misplaced cross then dropped into the top corner soon after the break to put the game beyond the Blues reach. 

Tammy Abraham scored late on but was an otherwise lacklustre performance, while concerns continued to rise for Werner who had failed to score in his past 10 games – his longest run without a goal for four years.

The damming defeat began Chelsea’s slide as they sat sixth with a number of teams above them having a game in hand.

Leicester City 2-0 Chelsea

A bitty 1-1 draw with Aston Villa and a 3-0 battering by Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City came before two wins – the first against Morecambe in the FA Cup followed by a scrappy 1-0 win against a 10 men Fulham then there was Leicester.

The Foxes eased past Chelsea in a 2-0 victory on Tuesday thanks to goals from Wilfred Ndidi and James Maddison, with Lampard’s men looking typically clueless against top-half opposition having only beaten one of the current top 10 sides in the division so far this season (West Ham).

Lampard’s spoke about his team “not doing the basics”, “complacency” creeping in and being “not ready to compete after the transfer ban, the young players and the new signings”. Though such words have start to ring hollow when his criticisms continue to be repeated with very little change on the pitch.

With reports of the Chelsea board lining up possible managerial replacements, there was a sense of finality as Lampard watched his team slump to a fifth defeat in eight games from the corner of his technical area.

As we all know, the King Power Stadium has become somewhat of a modern-day graveyard for Chelsea managers after Jose Mourinho’s second stint in charge was curtailed at the same arena little over five years ago for a dismal title defence attempt.

Players of the season (so far)

The small number of candidates for Chelsea’s best players going into the second half of the season just shows how blasé the Blues have been – especially the summer signings.

Havertz and Werner, two of Chelsea’s most expensive signings, have been underwhelming to say the least. In fairness, the German duo have joined a new league in a new country amid a global pandemic- with Kai even sidelined for a period after contracting the virus.

But the pair, who cost a combined £72m, are not performing as well as they should and some of the blame should be deflected onto their manager.

Starting with Werner – a man who scored 28 goals in 34 Bundesliga matches last season. – has only scored four in his 19 Premier League outings.

The fact the forward is currently underperforming his xG by 2.8 shows just how poor he has been in front of goal, but even then, an xG of 6.8 from 19 matches is not good enough for any striker let alone one for the worlds biggest clubs.

However, his lack of goals is partly down to Lampard not using him as a striker as he has made twice as many appearances on the left as he has made centrally.

At Leipzig, Julian Nagelsmann played him in a two-striker system with a physical partner in Yussuf Poulsen, but in the English Capital, he is deployed all on his own with a compilation of comical misses to boot.

As for Havertz, the youngest player to reach 35 goals in the Bundesliga, the 21-year old has been deployed in four different positions this season and has only spent a full 90 minutes on the pitch on three occasions with only three league goal contributions after 16 appearances.

It is a slightly different story for the likes of Chilwell, Silva and Mendy who have helped transformed Chelsea’s defence, whilst Ziyech – who has featured in just ten league fixtures – has shown a plethora of the devastating crossing and dangerous, jinxing wing-play that made the Blues buy him from Ajax.

Despite such mediocrity, one man has improved exponentially both in ability and in figure – Mason Mount.

Mount has been giving blood, sweat, and probably tears to end his boyhood club poor run of form amidst all the ‘Lampard’s son’ jokes over the past few weeks.

But it isn’t just a case of running around like a headless chicken for 90 minutes as to why Mount has received such praise, the 22-year old has been one of the few players that has continually looked to make things happen in an attacking sense.

Mount has recorded a goal involvement every 245 minutes so far this season while also having three goals and five assists to his name.

With increasing comparisons being drawn with John Terry for possessing similar leadership qualities, if there is any man that Lampard can rely on to change his fortunes around, it is Mount.

What’s next? 

Trying to predict what is next for Lampard and Chelsea is a difficult task.

Lampard did a fine job in difficult circumstances last season – integrating youth players, navigating a transfer ban and finishing fourth – and achieved everything the board could have hoped he would, but, on the back of a vast wave of investment in the summer, his club’s expectations have changed. 

The Blues can not afford to lose out on European football and, as such, the board have shortlisted Lampard’s possible successors if form does not improve.

It is understood that there is a desire within the hierarchy to explore a German-speaking route when it comes to the next appointment in order to get the best out of Werner and Havertz. Names such as Nagelsmann, Ralf Rangnick, Thomas Tuchel and even Southampton’s Ralph Hasenhuttl, have been mentioned. 

 

While pressure continues to mount on Lampard by the day, the next few matches, should that amount of time be afforded by Roman Abramovich, will be vital to his future.

Chelsea’s next league outing is against Wolves, who have lost six of their last nine in the league.

Yet it is a potentially daunting game for Lampard as Wolves’ last triumph came against the Blues in the reverse fixture at Molineux last month.

Then comes Burnley and given the Clarets’ current league position (17th), the visit of Sean Dyche’s side is another must-win game for Lampard.

Sandwiched between the Blues’ meetings with Burnley and Sheffield United is a trip across London to face Spurs, but given how well Mourinho has got the Lilywhites playing, you feel as though a clash with the bottom-of-the-table side is much more important.

Anything less than seven points from the back-to-back home clashes and a trip to 20th placed Blades will be a disaster with Lampard’s chances of seeing out his second full season in charge surely over.

The question still remains: will Lampard be given time even if he does get the results? Abramovich’s track record suggests otherwise.

But one thing is for certain: Frank must get his team playing better if he wishes to stay manager of the club he loves.

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