Played 5, Won 1, Drawn 1, Lost 3 – This statistic has angered/disappointed many Chelsea fans. This is not what you expect from current European Champions. Chelsea’s pre-season form shows just how much more work is still to be done at Cobham before the start of the next season. The fact that we managed to sign a lot of new exciting young players like Hazard, Marin and Oscar had raised the hopes of many Chelsea fans. However, apart from the first game of the pre-season where Hazard and Marin bamboozled Seattle Sounders, Chelsea have failed to impress. Hazard, in particular has been unimpressive, given his price tag.
Chelsea started the pre-season with a bang, winning 4-2 against Seattle Sounders in the 1st match but after that it has been a downward slide. They managed to snatch a late 1-1 draw against PSG and lost 3-2 against MLS All Stars, and 1-0 against AC Milan in the final game of the US Tour .The pre-season games which came to an end with a 3-1 loss to Brighton have shown a worryingly declining trend. Chelsea played very well in the 1st game scoring 4 past Seattle Sounders but what people don’t realize/know is that 2 of the 4 goals were scored because of deflected shots. Moving on to Chelsea’s next against PSG, Chelsea struggled to create many chances and had to rely on a late goal from Piazon to draw level. In Chelsea’s 3rd game, Chelsea gave a good fight against a strong MLS All Stars team, dominated the game for large periods, and looked good to win the game, but allowed the American team to comeback from 2-1 down to win the game 2-3 in injury time. Coming to the last game of the American tour, Chelsea lost against an AC Milan side considerably weakened following the sale of Ibrahimovic and captain Silva (who joined PSG) and the departure of other experienced players. After the American tour, came the one off game against Brighton in Europe which the club again lost (3-1).
Yes, Chelsea have been woeful in some of the games, but there is a reason behind this form. The club has used 30 players in all in the pre-season, out of which only 9 players have played for the whole 90 minutes and only 2 players have played for the whole of 90 minutes in two or more games. This shows that a same group of players has hardly played continuously for more than an hour. This has resulted in new players failing to gel with the old players in the squad. However, the most worrying fact of Chelsea’s pre-season has been the fact that Chelsea have conceded 10 goals. Therefore, getting the defence to sync has to be the major priority of RDM’s tactics at the start of the season. Howsoever scary Chelsea’s pre-season might look, I, as a Chelsea fan, won’t be too concerned because under Ancelotti we failed to win any pre-season games and we went on to win the double that year, while under AVB last season we won all our pre-season games and the rest is history, as we all know. Plus Chelsea’s Olympic participants and supposedly the key ingredients of Chelsea’s 2012-13 campaign, Mata, Sturridge and Oscar (to an extent) are yet to arrive at Cobham. Also, Torres has played only 110 minutes since winning the Golden boot at EURO’12. However, the one thing I am expecting is a relatively slow start to the season, given the number of additions and expected arrivals. Sometimes I also wonder if we have made a mistake by playing a game or two less in the pre-season, given the inadequate game time the squad has had to regain fitness. But one thing is for sure: RDM has to wave his magic wand like he did at the end of last season, to help the team win the Community Shield game against Manchester City.
