Do you want to understand the biggest story of the day before anyone else? Sign up here to our brilliant new daily newsletter.
“It’s about to compete. It’s about to compete. It’s about to compete. And, for different reasons, we struggle to compete in these types of games.”
Mauricio Pochettino repeated his message three times following Sunday’s 2-2 draw with Sheffield United at Bramall Lane, perhaps mindful of the fact that he had also publicly questioned the competitive fire of his Chelsea players only a week earlier after they had twice contrived to surrender a lead and draw 2-2 at home to 10-man Burnley.
In between came a stirring, dramatic, ‘One Step Beyond’ pumping comeback victory over Manchester United at Stamford Bridge that might have felt like a breakthrough moment to those less acquainted with Chelsea’s fondness for false dawns.
That was a glamorous challenge against another team with a famous name falling short of their historical standards. This was a more mundane Premier League assignment against a side very likely bound for the Championship and with it came a return to the regularly scheduled Chelsea programming: two leads lost, two soft goals conceded and two points dropped.
Sheffield United did not play well.
Chris Wilder’s defensive game plan was undone inside 11 minutes by comically bad defending from a corner that allowed Thiago Silva to run entirely free and clip Conor Gallagher’s delivery just inside Ivo Grbic’s far post. The home crowd spent much of the first half loudly barracking their own players who, before and after Jayden Bogle’s equaliser, left inviting expanses of space into which Chelsea counter attacked.
Yet they had more than enough to come back against a Chelsea side always happy to lend a hand to help a fallen foe onto their feet.
Chelsea were obliging opponents at Bramall Lane (George Wood/Getty Images) (Photo by George Wood/Getty Images)
Silva got the crowd going by playing a blind pass to Oli McBurnie in the box, almost yielding a goal for Ben Brereton Diaz. Gallagher handed off the surging Bogle to Marc Cucurella, who handed him off to no one. Then there were the series of limp lost headers in the final minutes, culminating in the sequence that presented McBurnie with a tap-in.
At least two goals conceded for the seventh game in succession, against the team with the fewest goals scored and the lowest per game average for shot attempts in the Premier League. This despite Pochettino effectively switching to three at the back to better protect the returning Silva, deploying Cole Palmer as a full-time No 10 to accommodate Noni Madueke on the right and starting Gallagher on the left, because his energy is required regardless of his position.
After the Burnley draw, Pochettino suggested he and his coaching staff might need to get tougher with their players. This time, he hinted with minimal subtlety that Chelsea might need to consider simply buying some new ones: “Always when the end of the season arrives, we need to analyse the squad and what we are missing and try to add people with the capacity to provide what we are seeing, to improve in the next seasons.“
Pochettino has grown noticeably more eager to draw attention to the structural limitations — or what he often refers to as “the circumstances” — he faces at Chelsea in recent weeks, from a seemingly endless chronic injury crisis that has significantly restricted his selection options to the mental, physical or technical limitations of the players still available to him.
It is abundantly clear he does not believe he has the necessary tools to do a better job than the one he is currently doing, deeply underwhelming though it is to many supporters.
Pochettino prowls around his technical area as Chelsea contrive to draw (George Wood/Getty Images) (Photo by George Wood/Getty Images)
It was not hard to find evidence on the pitch at Bramall Lane to support his case.
Chelsea’s possession dominance offered only illusory control, shattered by every burst of physical intensity from the home side. Nicolas Jackson was largely anonymous up front. Palmer and Madueke came alive with the ball but offered little defensive help without it.
Gallagher, Enzo Fernandez and Moises Caicedo can be too easy to play around and through. Cucurella and Axel Disasi have inconsistent defensive focus. Silva and Trevoh Chalobah can be physically manhandled, and at times were by the hulking pair of McBurnie and Brereton Diaz. Positional errors are becoming more frequent in Djordje Petrovic’s game. Of the Chelsea substitutes, only Carney Chukwuemeka made a positive impact.
Sheffield United’s late equaliser felt inevitable; only they, Burnley and Crystal Palace have conceded more Premier League goals after the 76th minute than Chelsea (17) in 2023-24.
The key question is whether co-sporting directors Laurence Stewart and Paul Winstanley — and by extension co-owners Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital — agree with Pochettino’s contention that he cannot reasonably be expected to do better with what he has at his disposal.
Chelsea went into this season believing they had sufficient talent to challenge for Champions League qualification while Pochettino insisted there could be no excuses for not winning. “The circumstances” that have transpired since have been well documented, but Stewart and Winstanley may reasonably wonder why their head coach cannot consistently motivate his players, or why the team’s tactical structure and balance has degraded over time.
“When we talk about projects, we are talking about three or five years,” Pochettino added. Publicly questioning the make-up of this lavishly assembled squad — even if he has a point — seems a risky approach if he wants to last long enough at Stamford Bridge to see it through, not least going into a summer in which Chelsea’s ability to bolster their squad in the transfer market could be significantly restricted by concerns over complying with Profit and Sustainability rules (PSR).
Making a late push for European qualification would help everyone feel better about the project, but Pochettino’s words offer no more cause for optimism than drawing with Sheffield United.
(Top photo: Daniel Chesterton/Offside/Offside via Getty Images)
