The Underlying Metrics of Mediocrity
Varying from toxic positivity to blaming supporters, Chelsea have become a sad shell of a once competitive football team.
“His concern was that too many players appeared to slip too easily into crisis mode, where he had seen too many heads drop and bad habits take hold after a bad performance or two. One source suggested that Chelsea had become “a club of self-preservation” rather than one where a powerful team spirit pushes them to greater heights.”
You may think that the words you have just read are directly describing the culture at Chelsea Football Club in 2025. Actually, the above paragraph is taken from a tell-all Athletic expose following the January 2021 sacking of Frank Lampard.
In quick time, those words could be dismissed as farcical, given a quickly derailing campagin was salvaged in the most astonishing turnaround seen in club history. As Thomas Tuchel would arrive, reunite a seemingly flawed group and propel them to Champions League glory.
The irony today is that Lampard, after two spells in the Chelsea dugout, now is reigniting belief in the Midlands with Coventry. Tuchel is preparing to formally begin work as England’s new coach.
A lot can change in four years.
Most of all the club where both of those names once were embroiled. Chelsea had issues in 2021, not all of which were remedied by the undeniable glory of a Champions League crown. However misguided the late Roman Abramovich years may have been in squad building, there was still tangible success to defend. It still felt like there was something reassembling a serious institution, or one that will a few tweaks, could once again challenge for a Premier League title.
By 2025, that Chelsea no longer exists. Instead what fans have now bore witness to is the stripping of institutional knowledge, replaced for vast expense by something worse. When failures happen, there is not sudden repercussion. Instead, there seems to be a pseudo-intellectual urge to spin the narrative. To double, triple, or quadruple down on clear errors. And for those with the power to cling onto power, rather than admit any wrongdoing.
Mikel Merino’s near post header in the 20th minute was enough to see off a toothless Chelsea attack on Sunday afternoon. The tameness to Chelsea’s so-called performance in a game of importance was impossible to ignore. Despite Enzo Maresca coming out to hail his team’s display, citing that there “wasn’t a big difference between us and them in creating chances” Chelsea recorded their lowest Expected Goals (xG) since the 1-0 loss to Newcastle in November of 2022 when Graham Potter had only recently taken charge.
Maresca’s side have in recent weeks shown a complete inability to create good looks at goal, relying on individual moments from Marc Cucurella, Reece James and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall to offer some respite to the overwhelming tedious sequences of possession.
A week earlier Maresca had taken it upon himself to single out his own home supporters for specific criticism. It was them that had not performed up to the required task, they had allowed standards to slip, and it was them who failed to grasp reality.
“The people, they have to understand that this is our way, our style, and this is the way we're going to play.. If you think football is just PlayStation and you win easy? No way. Every game is difficult.”
The condescending tone to Maresca’s speech did not help, revealing a type of sensitivity to criticism those at the King Power had felt the ire of last season. This speech was not given after Chelsea had slayed a dragon, or achieved some great landmark, it was after a pretty sub-standard 1-0 win over his former club who sit in 19th destined for relegation.
Four days later and a second leg at home to Copenhagen in the Conference League produced a similarly turgid performance. A rotated XI seemed to have little idea of what to do when the ball went into areas of importance.
Going after your own supporters is a risky move even for the most respected of coaches. Doing it when you are Enzo Maresca, who has already burnt a lot of his credibility, almost felt like an act of self-sabotage. It was an act of someone either who does not want to be challenged, or has been reassured by those above him that all of this is okay.
Maresca’s football is bland. Not even his most vocal defenders can underlying metric their way out of that. Chelsea are aimless, they are slow, they are ponderous. Even trying to compare Chelsea to Liverpool should get only one response and that’s howling laughter.
Some may point to the lack of attacking options with Nicolas Jackson, Noni Madueke and Cole Palmer all unavailable on Sunday. However, you cannot ignore the evidence that all three of those played large chunks of this poor run stretching back to the end of 2024.
You can count on one hand (finger?) players in the current squad that have improved under his coaching, many have severely regressed or stalled. Chelsea look like a team that have been intentionally made blander and less effective. For Maresca, a coach who does not boast an elite CV or charismatic personality, player development and a functioning system are the only two things he can cling to. Both are currently mediocre to downright disappointing the more his preferred style has taken hold.
There is this weird perception that simply passing the ball a lot makes you a good football team. Probably the worst byproduct of Pep Guardiola’s success with Manchester City.
Chelsea pass the ball a lot. They invert their fullbacks, their coach espouses unwavering principles like wanting his players to pass backwards. Because it worked for Pep, because it worked for Arteta, or someone else; the route we are on must be good.
Simply having possession does not mean anything if the opposition can remain in their shape without breaking a sweat or having to adapt to the questions you ask them. Arsenal, like Copenhagen and Leicester before them were content to remain in their shape for stretches of the game without much fuss.
You can blame the opposition every week for daring to try and stop Chelsea from playing, or you can ponder why the same trend keeps happening. Can’t you?
An overwhelming majority of the passing Chelsea do leads to absolutely nothing. Goalkeeper (when he doesn’t give the ball away) to centre-back, to fullback back to centre-back to centre-back to fullback to defensive midfielder to wide player, back to midfielder back to centre-back, back to goalkeeper.
If all you care about is possession, then you probably assume Chelsea are a very “controlling” side. They spent periods of Sunday’s second half with the ball but did absolutely nothing with it to ever show a sign that they were going to comeback.
Its an illusion of control, not the reality of what is actually happening. The first 20 minutes when Arsenal hounded Chelsea into mistakes and capitalised on their own inflicted wounds gave a more concrete picture of the actual control on that pitch.
If Chelsea had gone down narrowly 1-0 on Sunday, forcing Raya into big saves, had missed some glaring ones, you could feasibly argue with another go, a different result could play out. You are simply fooling yourself if you think Sunday was that, Arsenal couldn’t believe their luck how easy they had it.
Maresca’s technocratic approach to football is a bit like kryptonite to the average supporter. Football is an emotional sport more than it is an intellectual one. It relies on moments of passion, physical execerhtion and speed. These are things that have always rallied the Stamford Bridge, and almost every football crowd across the world.
You can tut all you want, you can sneer at supporters and call them dumb and uneducated, but that is the reality. If you don’t produce engaging football that brings them with you, you are simply producing a textbook that no one wants to read.
It did not help Maresca or his bosses that later on Sunday, Newcastle United overcame Liverpool in a cup final. Newcastle beat the only elite performing side in the Premier League this season with a header from a big-man at a corner, and then an overlap, cross, knockdown and finish to win their first cup in 70 years.
Newcastle battered Liverpool for large periods of the second half, rightly lifting the cup and gaining wide plaudits. They turned up in a big game against a favoured opponent and found ways to win.
In “big games” Chelsea have now only won one of their last 26 games against Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester City & Manchester United. The one is Palmer’s 101st minute winner last April in the 4-3 win over Man United – the weakest of the big teams. If you remove that, under this ownership, Chelsea have not beaten any of the elite teams they proclaim to be competing with.
Losing twice to a poor Man City side this season, gaining one point at home to Arsenal, losing at Liverpool in October and drawing at Man United in November.
Chelsea fans who weren’t still counting up the passes, cannot have avoided this contrast. As they saw Eddie Howe overcome Liverpool in a cup final on a big occasion, whilst their own coach shook the hand of an Arsenal player before losing meekly.
You can think this is a moment blown out of proportion, but it presents the perception of a weak coach being openly mocked as his team loses another big game that matters to supporters.
The post-match comments defending Robert Sanchez and Moises Caicedo claiming Chelsea “were better’ than Arsenal only signifies how far from serious the current culture is.
People who love Chelsea feel their intelligence is being insulted on a near weekly-basis now, and its little surprise by the week more are voicing their displeasure.
Maresca cannot be decoupled from the people who decided to appoint him last summer. As much as the Sporting Directors rightly warrant scrutiny and accountability for their obvious failure in recruitment, Maresca is also part of that growing picture too.
He appears to be a coach lacking substance in multiple areas. Be that in his approach, public demeanour or coaching. And given the way things ended with Mauricio Pochettino, you have to wonder if that is part of the point? Having someone who won’t say anything daring or confrontational. He will play a bland style of football for a squad of sellable assets that will interchanged with another set in 9-12 months time.
It is by some miracle Chelsea still sit in fourth place despite sitting in 14th on the Premier League form table following week 19 when the slide began.
There have been only four league wins since the middle of December. Those coming all at home against Wolves, West Ham, Southampton and Leicester. Chelsea’s last away league win came at Spurs on the 8th of December.
The reality is that a maximum points return from their home fixtures leaves a lot of room for error on the road. Which is not the greatest sign of the league’s current quality, but might prove enough to achieve the actual objective of this season; returning to the Champions League.
However, very little about the current state of performances can justify much confidence in that eventuality. Instead there is the prospect of a daunting trip up to St. James Park on the 10th of May which could become a play-off for top 4/5, which is probably the nightmare scenario for Maresca.
In what world can you argue this current Chelsea side can go up to St. James Park, buoyed by a cup triumph, and win when the chips are down?
On current form, they are relying that their inconsistency will be hidden by the failures of others, something which has remained consistent. Though its not exactly a fool-proof strategy and requires Chelsea to avoid any slip-ups against Spurs, Ipswich, Everton and Manchester United with a team solely hanging on individual moments of brilliance.
These are not the foundations on which you build longer-term progress. However, to be fair, it was at a similar point 12 months ago when Pochettino managed to turn a fracturing season into one that ended with a string of morale boosting victories.
That plainly put, is what Maresca needs to find from somewhere. In all likelihood, Maresca’s Chelsea will have to beat someone semi-decent to actually good, which so far, seems beyond them.
Excellent!