Chelsea FC: Reasons for Hope, Reasons for Caution

In the last week, Chelsea FC have made a remarkable Lazarus-like recovery after being left for dead. League losses to Manchester United, QPR, Arsenal and Liverpool, coupled with a loss to Bayer Levelkusen in the Champions League and a second loss to Liverpool last week that knocked them out of the Carling Cup, Chelsea has enjoyed a dramatic rebound over the past week with back-to-back 3-0 victories.

Against a thriving Newcastle in the EPL and a victory by the same score against a surging Valencia in the Champions League to win their group, Andre Villas-Boas’ Chelsea seem to have turned the corner. With an enormous game against Manchester City on the horizon, here are eight reasons that Chelsea fans should have both hope and caution for the coming weeks.

Hope: Oriol Romeu

Since replacing John Obi Mikel in the starting lineup after the league loss to Liverpool, Oriol Romeu has proven to be a revelation as Chelsea’s holding midfielder. His crunching tackles, coolness in possession and strength in the air have turned Chelsea from a side that was leaking goals in almost every game to a defensive stalwart.

Chelsea conceded goals in 10 of their first 12 league games. Romeu’s starts in the last three games (in all competitions) have resulted in three straight shutouts.

Hope: Juan Mata

Arguably Chelsea’s best player this season, Juan Mata has provided the attacking spark that had been missing. His slick passes, fantastic field vision and composure on the ball have helped Chelsea open up opposing defenses in a way that other players on the squad can’t.

In Chelsea’s game versus Valencia, he had the assists on both of Didier Drogba’s goals.

Hope and Caution: Ramires

Everyone is quick to brag about Ramires’ “lung-busting” runs (which to be fair are impressive), but, after all, this isn’t a track competition. Just because you can run, does not mean you can play the game.

Last year, Ramires was wasteful in possession and in front of goal. While he still misses far too many chances to be considered an elite player, he has clearly improved this season and his goal against Valencia was a combination of speed, strength and skill.

Hope and Caution: Didier Drogba

With an impressive goal against Newcastle and two nice finishes against Valencia, Didier Drogba appears to be back at his best. However, Chelsea fans should take a deep breath before they get too excited.

Drogba has always been at his best when in the spotlight, but he has also repeatedly showed a tendency to sport a bad attitude, play petulantly and value his own ambitions over those of the team. In the game against Newcastle, he missed a sitter and almost scored an own goal. He will also miss January’s games while he competes in the African Cup of Nations.

Hope and Caution: Daniel Sturridge

With seven goals in 10 league games and runs that have terrorized opposing defenses, Daniel Sturridge has had an impressive start to the year.

However, his wastefulness in front of goal has been astonishing as evidenced last weekend at Newcastle when he put seven shots either into the side netting or straight at Toon keeper Tim Krul. His confidence to take on defenders is obvious, but it is also sometimes obviously unnecessary when he could instead make an easy pass to a wide-open teammate in front of the net.

Caution: David Luiz

It will take more than one game without a boneheaded mistake to convince doubters that David Luiz is ready for the big-time.

While he played efficiently enough against Valencia, his terrible habits to go bombing forward at inappropriate times, make reckless tackles even as the last defender and try to dribble the ball past forwards and losing possession in front of his net have proven David Luiz still has a ways to go.

He probably should have been sent off in the fourth minute against Newcastle which surely would have resulted in a different scoreline than a 3-0 Chelsea victory.

Caution: A Shocking Lack of Depth in the Back

Realistically, Chelsea only have five viable defenders (three if you don’t count Luiz or Jose Bosingwa). How long will John Terry, Branislav Ivanovic and Ashley Cole be able to play without picking up injuries? Even more baffling was Chelsea’s acceptance of Alex’s transfer request.

At some point this season, they are going to need him. Need proof? Look back to last season when Chelsea was forced to start Paulo Ferreira at center back against Sunderland only to lose to the Black Cats 3-0.

Caution: Roman Abramovich’s Shortsightedness

Even though Abramovich showed willingness to open up the checkbook again last year with the January purchases of Fernando Torres and David Luiz, his willingness last summer to allow Ricardo Carvalho, Michael Ballack and Deco to leave with no suitable replacements purchased resulted in zero squad depth and Chelsea’s first half struggles.

Then, as usual, the team went into panic mode and overpaid for players who weren’t ready to be integrated into the lineup. As a result, Chelsea’s current lineup is a mixture of youngsters not quite ready for the big time and a group of players past their primes pushing to regain their old glory.

Abramovich’s short-sighted transfer policies (a la Andriy Schevchenko) also caused his well-reported rift with Jose Mourinho (probably the greatest manager in the world right now) and tension in the squad last year with Fernando Torres’ move.

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