Poch patience wearing thin as lavish-spending Chelsea tread water in Premier League

BY PAUL LAGAN
paul@slpmedia.co.uk

Just when Chelsea fans thought they could come up again from behind their sofas, they were treated to yet another horror show, which has left many feeling anxious and wondering if it will ever be okay to say ‘I’m a Chelsea fan, and I’m proud of my club.’

The misguided euphoria that greeted the final whistle of the exhilarating 4-3 victory over a mediocre Manchester United side last week, was tempered by the realisation that actually the Blues are fair to middling themselves on the football front.

The late, late equaliser by Sheffield United on Sunday is somewhat a barometer for the season so far.

The fact that the Blues have let in two goals in their past seven games is a sideshow that has gone under the radar slightly but is the reason why the west Londoners – a billion quid in the making – are lumbering and treading water in ninth place in the Premier League.

The response on social media by the rank and file supporters to the 2-2 draw at Bramall Lane was fairly typical. Replace #s, *s and a few @s with proper letters in them together and the words created would be far too prosaic to be repeated in a family newspaper. But the gist is there for all to see – the fans are revolting.

Thankfully the Blues have reached the threshold of 44 points – 40 is the measurement usually pointed out as the safety bar from relegation.

So the fans can at least breathe a sigh of relief that they are not in the same boat as Monday’s opponents at the Bridge – Everton.

Now there is a club that is going through a crackpot stage in its illustrious history. More than 70 years of continuous participation in the top flight of English football, the Toffeemen come to the Bridge just two points above the drop zone.

Two more points were wiped off their total last week following naughty boy antics with their spending in recent years.

Could the blue half of Liverpool really get relegated? Probably not, if they had to face Chelsea every week – that’s for sure. Mauricio Pochettino boys don’t have a good track record of late against the so-called bad teams in the league.

The draw last week was against bottom of the table Blades but that was after they could only draw 2-2 against second-bottom Burnley, at home at the end of March.

If you add the 2-2 draw away to Brentford, who are spiralling down the league in 15th place, and just four points off relegation, then you get the idea –

Chelsea don‘t do well against teams of similar calibre.

Contrast that with a creditable draw (not win) away to Man City – er, and that’s about it, and you can see why fans are calling out the club and the head coach as saying ‘it just ain’t good enough’.

Pochettino has started to put the players under the bus by claiming they are young, lack intensity and basic will to win. After the Sheffield United game, he had just about given up on the cause. He said: “I’m very frustrated because we conceded in the first-half, after we scored. Then you concede

in the last minutes, you always feel very disappointed and frustrated because you should win the game in this moment.

“But for different circumstances, we conceded and in the end it was a draw. I want to say also the draw is a fair result if you analyse the game.

“Even if we controlled the game and had chances, we didn’t have the capacity to be solid, be strong and not to concede goals. That is the most painful situation.”

But the fans will say: “Er, that’s your job. You are supposed to be a coach of young players, to get the best out of them.”

And so it will continue for the next couple of weeks as the season draws to a close.