If you get it wrong you'll get it right next time

Picture: Getty Images

I start the year on a negative note. Now, I accept that after all the merde that passed our way in 2016, commencing 2017 with the triviality of a lost football match doesn't seem all that bad, and truly it isn't. But, like most Chelsea fans, I would sincerely hope, last night's defeat to Spurs will stick in the craw for a long time. Why? Because it simply should. This is Tottenham we're talking about, after all.

Why one team should be considered the one to beat over any other with whom you've had history - and Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United come immediately to mind - is not immediately clear, and is really just a symptom of the irrationality that is football fandom. Every opponent should be the one to beat, which is surely the logical objective of the game. But like Jerry Seinfeld and his postman neighbour Newman, Chelsea fans have a simmering dislike of Tottenham, going back to who-knows-when, and for no reason whatsoever other than Spurs are simply a rival worthy of our dislike.

But let's not get caught up in all that. Tottenham are, so far this season, looking more resilient, more potent and more disciplined than the side that collapsed in the final stages of last season. That contemptuous draw at Stamford Bridge on May 2 marked not only the end of Spurs' serious challenge to Leicester City for the league title, but also the inexplicable moment that Eden Hazard finally switched on the Eden Hazard we once knew, and had been absent without leave since the beginning of the season. Luckily for Chelsea, that Hazard is still with them. 

Just not last night. First off the bat, Chelsea weren't bad. Spurs' 2-0 win may have ended Chelsea's remarkable 13-match unbeaten run, but that may have been almost inevitable. Yes, perhaps if things had gone differently last night, and César Azpilicueta and Victor Moses had not missed their marked man not once but twice and in identical circumstances, the game might have had a different outcome. But let's not ignore the fact that Tottenham were the better composed side last night. Their MO wasn't that dissimilar to the start they made in May and indeed the way they took the lead at Stamford Bridge in November. In Dele Alli, Tottenham have a true gem, and in Wanyama they had a solid object in midfield to disrupt Chelsea's counter-attacking play. And, perhaps, if Diego Costa had been a little sharper, or if Pedro had run into the space that caused the visible ire between him and Costa, or Hazard himself had been more accurate when he had a shooting chance, then Chelsea may have extended the record to 14 unbeaten.

But it wasn't to be. As Gary Cahill, eloquent in his post-match interviews, said, "we are not robots". An important point. In the previous 13 games Chelsea had been imperious, whether winning emphatically over Manchester United and Everton, or grinding out more modest victories over West Brom, Sunderland and Crystal Palace. It became too easy to think that Antonio Conte had simply found the switch to turn this form on after those early season disasters against Liverpool and Arsenal, the latter of which prompting his change to the 3-4-3 formation that unlocked the success that followed.

This morning Chelsea are still top of the league and five points clear. Last night's defeat may have opened things up a little for the chasing pack, but the Premier League is still in Chelsea's hands if they want it. For us fans, we'll deal with wounded pride (which is, frankly, the biggest casualty). Conte's men will want to reflect, as they watch the video replay at Cobham today, on why they were unable to find the gears to really counter Tottenham and repeat that life-affirming reversal in May. Conte himself - a breath of fresh air at Chelsea following the rank negativity of Mourinho - will want to look at whether he put Cesc Fàbregas on too late to make a difference (his link-up play with Costa was evident from the moment he came on) and whether he should have replaced N'Golo Kanté earlier when it was obvious that his passing and positioning had been uncharacteristically off-kilter.

Football, as I've often quoted Danny Baker, "is chaos". There is no logic to it, no rhyme or reason. Chelsea can start a season poorly, then go on a record-seeking run, and then end it with an off night. That's why we love the game, warts and all. No team is infallible, just as there is no such thing as a perfect 10. Sometimes irresistible forces encounter immovable objects, and they tussle until one is the victor. That wasn't exactly the case last night. Chelsea weren't bad, it's just that Tottenham were better. 

The job now for Antonio Conte is to pick his players up. They won't have lost their mojo in a single, tough encounter (though the mystery is still unsolved as to how this same team lost it in the weeks between winning the league and restarting their campaign a season ago) but they will need to think about what didn't go right for them against one of the toughest opponents they will face this season, and build on it. There's the matter of an FA Cup 3rd Round tie against Peterborough on Sunday to think about - and think hard about (their 2015 4th Round exit to Bradford City should still be fresh in their memories...), followed by the resumption of Premier League hostilities that will see Chelsea play Liverpool (away) and Arsenal (home) in the space of five days at the end of this month. And we are only at the half-way stage of the season, anyway. 

Mental discipline and mindset were the reasons Chelsea fared so poorly last season. Antonio Conte has reversed that. There is confidence oozing through the side. Last night was an aberration. This morning, as the players file into the meeting room at the Cobham training ground, my hope is that someone on the staff is a fan of the late Scottish folk-rocker Gerry Rafferty, and as a musical pick-me-up, plays them his 1979 it Get It Right Next Time. Because if you get it wrong...

Arrested development

Of course it was all down to me. My first visit to Stamford Bridge since Christmas, and Chelsea pummel Newcastle United 5-1, the game largely won within the first 18 minutes via three goals that left the visitors shell-shocked. Clearly, my presence was the only explanation for Chelsea suddenly putting in a ruthless performance. At last.

The truth of the matter, however, is that Chelsea's performance yesterday was the result of one single, even straightforward improvement: confidence. Tactics, positioning and all that good stuff played their part, but as I spent most of the four months between August 8 and José Mourinho's sacking telling anyone who'd listen, Chelsea's problems were all psychological. They were simply broken on the inside. Yesterday they looked anything but. Incredible what a difference Guus Hiddink has made with just a lighter touch.

However, we should avoid too much excitement. Hiddink has merely arrested the relegation form. Chelsea are, today, 12th in the Premier League, as opposed to 16th when Mourinho was sacked. Victory over Newcastle was Hiddink's first league home win since taking over (the 3-1 result on December 19 could hardly be chalked up to the Dutchman, coming just two days after being appointed). But while this may sound ungrateful - it's not - the confidence Hiddink has instilled in his browbeaten and previously disinterested players will surely bode well for at least an FA Cup run and, who knows, the unlikely turnover of PSG in the Champions League.

Pleasing as it was to see a blistering win by Chelsea from my own season ticketed seat, the realist - some might say cynic - in me knows that Hiddink's task is merely one of brief containment. Any absence from Europe next season will surely herald an exodus in the summer. Diego Costa will undoubtedly return to Atletico Madrid, Eden Hazard will get to realise his ambition of playing for Real Madrid (unless PSG come in for him), John Terry will probably kick his last for Chelsea against Leicester City on the final day of the season, and others, like Willian, Courtois and Oscar, will probably get itchy feet themselves ahead of a new manager coming in.

And perhaps that is for the best. With 34 or so players of every discipline out on loan, and one of the most successful youth squads continuing to add to their trophy haul, surely even the most bizarre transfer policy at Chelsea must recognise that a generationally-rare opportunity to rebuild with young talent presents itself next season.

The question is how prepared Roman Abramovich and his lickspittle board are to let the Chelsea field lie fallow for a season. No Europe means no Champions League TV windfall, which means a relatively lean year with which to reduce the club's debt. And then there's the matter of a new manager. Who, of Europe and Latin America's potentially available elite coaches will be prepared to come in, work with a fresh young squad without the attraction of Champions League football?

A Manuel Pellegrini or a Mark Hughes might, but it's unlikely either will figure in the frame of reference of the Chelsea board, especially one whose ambition to find a replacement striker extends only as far as buying a crocked Alexandre Pato to cover for an even more crocked Radamel Falcao, who in turn was desperately intended to fill the gap left by Fernando Torres. See what I'm saying here? 

One sometimes wonders whether those in charge of talent acquisition at Chelsea really know what football is about at all, given some of the names that have come in only to be forgotten. So it doesn't bode well for the next choice of manager...unless, having been thwarted repeatedly in his attempts to sign Pep Guardiola, Roman Abramovich goes all out to land Mauricio Pochettino, who would be the best option for bringing a squad of youngsters up to European prowess.

Whatever happens, let's just agree that Chelsea today may have improved from the form they were in back in December, and they may well push on in at least the FA Cup. But they do, slightly, flatter to deceive. Against MK Dons in the cup two weeks ago they could have - actually, they should have - won by ten goals or more. The scoreline that afternoon ended 5-1, as did yesterday's. A useful reminder that progress and improvement, when you've been as deep in despair as Chelsea were, is still only relative.