Chelsea's woes, and how they can catch up with Manchester United

Once again, Chelsea have found themselves in a rut, quite similar to the situation they were in last season. They have been inconsistent, dealing with player problems and fan trouble. Fans still haven’t gotten behind Rafa Benitez, while the exit of Frank Lampard from Chelsea looks all set this summer. Being a Chelsea fan at this stage means standing on pretty shaky ground. I still don’t get why Di Matteo was sacked, and why Benitez is still at the club. Chelsea were 4 points behind the leaders when Roberto left, but now they’re 16 points behind. Chelsea are not even close to their former selves they were at the beginning of the season, despite showing glimpses of their quality. From my point of view, Chelsea can match Manchester United‘s consistency only if:

1. A manager is given enough time to experiment, and is respected by the fans. The situation of Rafa Benitez at present is not helping the team. We need a manager who understands Chelsea’s needs.

2. Chelsea needs a striker! Ever since the departure of our Drog, Chelsea have been unable to find a reliable striker. Torres has been given too many chances and should now be replaced. Mata has been coming up with crucial goals, but we cannot depend on a midfielder to score all the goals for us. However, new buy Ba and loanee Lukaku do give some glimmer of hope.

3.Roman needs to understand that respecting senior players and extending their contracts is the need of the hour, rather than negotiating for $50 million-rated strikers. The example of Frank Lampard can be taken here. Frank, who is practically a legend at Chelsea, has been denied a contract extension by Roman. Roman’s stubbornness about buying Radamel Falcao or Cavani, who are extremely high-priced strikers, has not gone down well with the fans.

4. The youth academy needs to be used as well. Josh McEachran, who was touted as the next big thing for Chelsea, is being constantly loaned out to clubs. Similarly, players like Aanholt, Gael Kakuta, Piazon and Bamford need to be given chances in the first team.

5. John Terry has been a fan favourite for many years. He is a great leader, and his performances have been nothing less than brilliant. However, our over-dependence on John Terry has backfired. We have been pale without Terry in the back. We have conceded thrice the goals when we have played without Terry, as compared to when he does play. It’s time that the other defenders in the team step up.

At the beginning of the season,when Chelsea faced Manchester United at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea lost. However the performance that they put up after being 2 goals down certainly announced that the Premier League was once again a three-horse title race. However, inconsistent performances have brought us to third, away from first place, where we were dominating at first. The Champions League exit has added more salt to the wounds. But this is the season to experiment. We have seen a major rebuilding of the team with Eden Hazard, Oscar, Moses and Mata replacing the old guard of Drogba, Anelka, Kalou and Florent Malouda. Mikel has been good, and David Luiz has been nothing short of brilliant at his new position, with the Chelsea management almost certain about letting Frank Lampard leave.

I’m still sulking at the sacking of Roberto and the appointment of Rafa Benitez by Roman Abramovich. However, the only thing we fans can do is get behind the players and the manager, and keep our fingers crossed, hoping that we can relive the glory days that Mourinho gifted us.