The match played out like far too many have in recent weeks, months, years. Chelsea dominate proceedings, score a goal, but fail to score a second … before the match inevitably turns, levels drop, opposition take their chances, and we drop points.
And though this particular match ended on a positive note, with Reece James coming off the bench, taking the captain’s armband, and equalizing deep into added-on time with an excellent free kick, the overall feeling was once again quite doomy and gloomy. The vibes have turned sour, the trajectory has turned south, positives have become negatives, the whole lot. It’s not the first winter of discontent in club history, but that doesn’t make it any less frustrating.
“It was probably one of our best first halves of the season. The way we were playing on the ball and off the ball, the way we created so many chances, we had around 15 shots, and the first half has to finish with a different score because at least 2-0 was what we deserved.
“Then in the second half, after the penalty, we dropped a little bit and we probably need to understand the reason why. The feeling is like a little bit of a shame because when you play the way you played in the first half, where we played really, really good, you need to be clinical.”
-Enzo Maresca; source: Chelsea FC
These things can happen, and when they do so in isolation, they can be dismissed easily. It’s a lot harder to do that when they don’t happen in isolation, but are instead part of an overall trend. We can maybe trust that we will snap out of this, but we don’t quite have the built-up trust in this squad to have confidence in actually doing so. Even the famed Old Guard didn’t always manage to do it, and these guys certainly aren’t those guys.
Inescapably, the only answer we have for this is to keep going and keep growing. There’s certainly plenty of room for improvement. A lot of damage has been done to our season already, and yet we’re still in fourth (or fifth, depending on whether Newcastle United keep their hot streak going today). It’s not over yet!
