Are Chelsea the Real Deal?

In Chelsea’s last four matches we have seen two extremely convincing wins sandwiched between two poor losses. The question is—are the cracks beginning to emerge?

The Blues are currently top of the Premiership ahead of Liverpool with their mighty goal difference of 23. Against newly-promoted—albeit high-flying—Hull City and Roy Keane’s Sunderland, Chelsea made it look easy scoring eight goals, playing with the freedom and style they have shown so often in the first quarter of this season.

However, either side of those wins Chelsea lost their home record to Liverpool, in which they had 80 minutes to break them down after falling behind, and lost badly this week in the Champions League at Roma.

Questions are beginning to emerge as to whether Chelsea, with the injuries that they have had to the likes of Ballack, Essien, Deco, Joe and Ashley Cole, and Drogba can achieve success against top quality teams which are well organised and hard to break down.

Chelsea have so far struggled at home in the Premiership against Manchester United—just about scraping a draw—and Liverpool. In both these games, Scolari’s team had difficulty creating many clear cut chances and lacked the fluency and style they have been able to show in other matches.

When Chelsea’s front men have come up against top defenders they have struggled to find a way through. They seemed to run out of ideas quickly in these circumstances and for example against Liverpool resorted to aiming long balls up to Anelka—a player who is not strong in the air.

The question is—would the likes of Anelka, Malouda, and Kalou really get into the top sides? The three attackers may have scored and shown positive skill going forward against the so-called weaker teams, but against the better sides the trio have been exposed as distinctly average. 

Joe Cole has now returned from injury, but the player is some way off hitting top form, and without his flair and ability to get past the opposition, who really can do it for Chelsea against a well organised, defensive unit?

Robinho would have been a good start.

Of course this is by no means the start of doom and gloom for Chelsea, they are still top of the Premiership and top of their Champions League group. They have displayed some excellent attacking football this season, scoring a bagful of goals and conceding very few. Against Aston Villa, Middlesbrough and Sunderland they were sublime.

They have Frank Lampard, who is in the form of his life, Jose Bosingwa and Ashley Cole showing great adventure from the flanks, and captain John Terry remains their leader and their rock.

There is no doubt that the motivation is there, losing out to Manchester United by just two points in the Premier League and having been so agonisingly close to winning the Champions League against United last May, Chelsea are more desperate than ever to win titles this season.

There just appear to be some question marks emerging over whether they can really sustain the challenge to win trophies this season. When Chelsea hit a brick wall who can they really look to, to produce that bit of magic?

Having missed out on Robinho, Scolari may look to bring someone into the squad in January. But then there’s the matter of finding a player eligible for the Champions League and finding a player that can settle in quickly—not an easy task.

Essentially this season, Chelsea have become absorbing to watch, a team that pushes forward at any given chance and no longer shut up shop when they take the lead. They can hardly be labelled "boring, boring Chelsea" these days.

However, the Blues have fallen short when they have faced tricky opposition and a strong defensive line. It remains to be seen whether they have the quality in attack to turn a game around when the going gets tough.

Chelsea will hope to see the quick return to sharpness of Drogba and Joe Cole and the return of Ballack in midfield. They may also find another option in the January transfer window. Either way, it will be fascinating to see how Chelsea fare over the coming months, and whether or not they have what it takes to go the whole way.