Christmas cheer, Chelsea-style

Picture: Reuters

A look, this morning, at the Premier League table and there is a chasm of just seven points separating Liverpool at the summit from plucky Southampton in ninth and at the bottom of a mini-league on 25 points. The main point here being that everyone seems to be circling around each other at the moment, and despite Liverpool’s ominous position at the top (well, ominous until Sam Allardyce came along yesterday), the fact that Manchesters United and City are back in the running, along with Leicester and Everton are indications that, surprisingly for the Christmas period - slap bang in the centre of the middle third of the season already - it’s anyone’s guess who’ll end up in a Top Four finish come May, or June, or October, or whenever this season actually ends.

Read the back pages and on any given day someone will write about any one of about six or even seven teams being title contenders. Or, to put it another way, have a good run and, apparently, you’re putting together a tilt. Even Manchester United, implausibly now up to fourth. So where does that leave Chelsea? Saturday’s match at the Emirates was one of the most lethargic performances I’ve seen from Frank Lampard’s side since he took charge, and really it shouldn’t have been. Premier League footballers are too professional to go nuts on the Christmas indulgence, so the apparent legginess couldn’t have been caused by overdoing the port and cheese (which would be my ready excuse for anything over the last 72 hours). So, quite why they allowed an Arsenal, stripped of many of their regular starters through illness, and coming to the game on the back of a truly abject run that raised very real questions about Mikel Arteta’s future, to monster them in such a decisive fashion is baffling. And troubling.

Let’s face it, Christmas is a lousy time for football. In normal times, the fans aren’t up for Boxing Day fixtures - especially the ridiculous 12.30 kick-offs that television scheduling insists on - and the pile-up of games has a noticeably diminished return as the period progresses. Frankly I’m usually grateful to get past New Year and onto the FA Cup Third Round. But that doesn’t excuse Chelsea’s dismal performance on Saturday that left them lying seventh (now eighth, at time of writing) and with an ugly looking record of three defeats out of their last five matches, all of them away. Lampard will have plenty to think about before making his team selection for tonight’s home fixture against Aston Villa but, then, he presumably had some weighing up to do against Arsenal. 

On Saturday, performances seemed to drop off a cliff before our vary eyes. “It wasn’t good enough,” said the Chelsea coach afterwards, adding that he was angry about the missed opportunity to go second. “You get what you deserve,” he ruminated. “Lazy,” was the other part of his assessment. “Lazy to give away a free-kick that [Xhaka] puts in the top corner,” he railed to Sky Sports, “and I'm very, very disappointed in the way we approached the first half, because some things in football are basics. It's not tactics or systems, it is 'do you want to run, back your teammate out and sprint'? Or do you want to jog and say 'maybe I don't have to run,' and we took that decision instead of the right one.”

One can imagine the atmosphere on board the Chelsea team bus back from Islington to Cobham was as chilly as the blustery evening had been in anticipation of Storm Bella blowing in. Lampard’s frustration was understandable, and while it’s usual for know-it-alls to say that a coach needs to take as much blame for a bad defeat as his players, on this occasion, it was clear how much his players were lacking. Timo Werner continued his frustrating run of games without anything meaningful in front of goal; Tammy Abraham continued to demonstrate what a dedicated forward he is, but without the goals to show for it, save for that one consolation (which was subject to scrutiny after the linesman ridiculously ruled offside due to a hair on the striker’s knee being slightly too close to goal than regulations allow). Still, though, Olivier Giroud sat it out in quiet frustration in the stands, a picture of seemingly stoic acceptance, despite knowing how he would have liked to get on and play against his former club. 

What Chelsea lacked in the forward line-up, they didn’t exactly make up for in their midfield and wide players. Even if Callum Hudson-Odoi, brought on at the break, injected some vim into the play, it was a rare uptick by anyone in blue. Jorginho’s latest missed penalty seemed to sum up the team’s performance - another one of his hop-skip-jump efforts that lacked any power and was promptly stopped by Leno. Really, it shouldn’t even be a case of sending him back to the training pitch to practice. He should never take another for the club again. 

Arsenal’s goals were well taken, but as good as they were, Chelsea were also at fault for all three: a needless penalty given away by Reece James, a cheap free kick conceded by the usually dependable N’Golo Kanté, and then Bukayo Saka’s bizarre cross that somehow redirected itself and into the goal, like a cruise missile dynamically changing course at the last minute and down a different chimney to the one its handlers had intended. With the exception, perhaps, of Christian Pulisic and Mason Mount’s ever-present industry (although even they were off their usual pace), none of the team Lampard put out against Arsenal did much to draw praise. It wasn’t that they were bad, per se, it’s just that they were just so ineffective. Yes, lethargic. Which means that the selection tonight against a vibrant Villa - who sit one place above Chelsea on goal difference, but with two games in hand - will be crucial. Because if Chelsea’s supposed best 11 can put in such a dismal shift against an Arsenal we thought were there for the taking, the second string certainly won’t fare so well.

Inevitably, though, questions are being asked again about Lampard’s own future. Lying eighth in a tight title race is not what Roman Abramovich bankrolled a £250 million summer spending spree for. The pressure is on the 42-year-old manager do better in his second season than the fourth place and a cup final finish from his first. Christmas is a lousy period to assess a football team, with the fixture logjam - worsened by the pandemic - making life hard for any team. Lampard faces the challenge that they are already four points off where they were after 15 games last season, with too many in-form teams above Chelsea who could pull away further. He’s clearly also dealing with some fitness issues in his squad. Ben Chillwell made such a miraculous recovery after exiting the home West Ham fixture after seven minutes with an ankle problem, that his teammates called him ‘Lazarus’. He definitely wasn’t sharp enough against Arsenal, as could be said of his neighbour in the backline, Thiago Silva. And elsewhere along the defence, Reece James looked like he wasn’t firing on all cylinders, either. But, then, Lampard has options. Club captain César Azpilicueta is still one of the best right-backs in the business, even if he's lost his starting place to James. To add to this, Lampard's religious adherence to 4-3-3 is starting to highlight a lack of flexibility that means he labours with Werner in his left-of-centre forward position.

“They have gone from looking one of the paciest, quickest sides in the Premier League, to one of the most pedestrian,” former Chelsea midfielder Craig Burley said on ESPN, noting that such a dip in form is the sort of thing the capricious Abramovich, takes note of - whether the head coach is a club legend or not. “I’m not suggesting Abramovich is going to sack him in the next couple of weeks,” Burley added, “but there is one thing they need to remember – top four. If they don’t get in the top four, he’s probably done.”

Picture: Facebook/Chelsea FC

An ominous thought to end on, and although one bad game at Christmas doesn’t make a disaster, three defeats in as many trips away is the stuff of form issues. The next few weeks of league and cup fixtures are not going to be helped by individual players at Lampard’s disposal not pulling their weight, either due to confidence or fitness, factors that can be helped by the coaching staff. 

Where I do have some sympathy is that, as with every year it seems, the Christmas fixtures are relentless. While Lampard can’t complain about the recovery time between last Monday's game at home against West Ham and Saturday’s at Arsenal, he’s got a point about his beleaguered squad having to go again tonight. 

“I'm not trying to be clever,” he said last week. “It's an important point for us, because there are other teams that are challenging at the top of the league that play two games in three days. Manchester United, Tottenham and Liverpool play two games in three days. It's counter-productive for the quality of the Premier League, it's a risk for players if they are going to play both games at top-end elite sport, everybody knows that.” And he added that Aston Villa also wanted an extra day’s grace, but both clubs were overruled, he says, by the Premier League and by the broadcasters. “I know in conjunction with each other, this was bounced around, it got decided that we play twice in 48 hours, when other teams that are challenging at the top of the league play twice in three days. I don't see how it's a fair playing field, I think it's wrong.” 

It’s a refrain we hear every Christmas from every club and every manager. And from a fan’s perspective, the games themselves are never quite the attractions the broadcasters hope they’ll be. But it’s Lampard's job, come what may, to manage his squad through the period, maximising those in form, resting those who clearly need it - mentally as much as physically - and taking a punt on players who deserve their chance. Hudson-Odoi comes to mind, and Billy Gilmour. And, perhaps, Giroud, could do with more use.

The festive fixtures congestion argument will cut little ice with Lampard's bosses. Maybe not now, but certainly when the end-of-season review comes around. Lampard knows he’s not in charge by some default of having been the club’s highest scoring player of all time. When he signed the contract to become manager, that legacy was confined to the trophy room. What happens between tonight and season’s end is partly in his hands. I wish him well: as much as I can’t fault Abramovich for what he’s done for my club, his readiness to dispense with managers before they have had the chance to establish themselves has at times been predictably ugly. With the exception of one or two - the divisive Rafa Benitez and the frustrating Maurizio Sarri come instantly to mind - some stability and heritage creation would also have been nice. Lampard deserves no more favours than any of his predecessors, though fan loyalty is justified. But that also requires a reciprocal match in terms of team performance. And on that, he still has some distance to carry.