Lack lustre performance at West Ham spells alarm bells for Chelsea diamond

Normally being top of the table at Christmas with a record points lead would be seen as a good thing. And I guess it is. But things, especially in football, are rarely that simple, and widening chinks in Chelsea’s armour raise a real concern that a golden opportunity to reclaim the title might not come to fruition.

Yesterday Gianfranco Zola’s West Ham played the perfect game against Chelsea. Excellently harrying Ancelotti’s midfield diamond, the Irons defended deep and narrow, perfectly countering Chelsea’s width-less formation. Scott Parker looked back to his best – time and again breaking up Chelsea’s clumsy attacks – and their forward line did occasionally look like it might come up with something on the break.

Chelsea, and Ancelotti, had no real response, and a draw was probably a fair result. On balance, West Ham fans probably have more cause to complain that they didn’t walk back to Plaistow tube with all three points. As good as West Ham’s determined performance was however, Chelsea made it too easy for them.

There were two fundamental – but closely linked - problems with Chelsea’s performance yesterday, and neither had anything to do with the defence. Firstly, there was a real lack of sharpness and creativity in the pass, especially in midfield. As with other games over the last month, too many Chelsea players were on intensely average form resulting in the team struggling to exert any control over the game for any amount of time. Ancelotti described Chelsea’s first half performance as being ‘too slow’. He was right, but Chelsea’s failures ran deeper than that.

At times there is a real dearth of creativity in Chelsea’s midfield. With Lampard not on-song there simply isn’t another player in midfield consistently looking to play an unexpected (but intelligent), attacking pass to break through stubborn defences. Aside from Joe Cole, who in my opinion is better suited to playing wide than at the tip of the diamond, Chelsea also lack a player who can take a man on.

Secondly the chronic lack of width in the team has hamstrung performances, and especially in the last few weeks. Even players who have the potential to play wide – for example Malouda, are clearly instructed to play inside. It isn’t enough to rely on full-backs to provide all the width – not that Cole or Ivanovic got forward enough yesterday – and Chelsea are restricted into playing down a narrow central channel of the pitch. 

It isn’t rocket science: playing only down a central channel makes it far easier for savvy defences to counter Chelsea attacks: play deep and with two narrow banks of four, congesting play in the final third. Net result for a Chelsea side only prepared to try and pick passes through a web of opposition defenders: move after move breaks down as it’s too easy for the opposition to double up on Chelsea’s dangerous players.

All of this, of course, adds up to a predictability, and is an entirely self-perpetuating problem. As opposition cotton on to how to stop Chelsea, so Lampard, Ballack, Cole and Malouda (or whoever is playing) wade into more congested defences. Faced with limited space, build up play slows dramatically. The pressure to complete the ‘perfect pass’ increases, which mean more go astray. The whole thing breaks when, as yesterday, Drogba isn’t at 100% - you reach a situation where almost if Drogba doesn’t score, Chelsea won’t.

There have been a few performances with a real lack of dynamism from Chelsea in recent weeks, and I suspect that all the talk about a defence leaking goals at set pieces has, perhaps unhelpfully, diverted attention away from them. Whilst the lack of dynamism didn't matter earlier in the season when players were on top form and opposition were lining up differently, it's starting to cost the Chelsea points now. It’s Ancelotti’s job to bring that dynamism back: and the key to unlocking it, for me at least, is to bring width – or at least the occasional prospect of it to keep defences guessing – back into the team’s play.

Ancelotti may need to realise that perhaps diamonds aren’t always forever, or at least encourage Chelsea’s to play more expansively. If he doesn’t, more results like yesterday will almost certainly follow.

You might be interested to read:

• Five positives from Chelsea’s winless run
• Sublime to ridiculous: how good are Chelsea?

Comments

[DKD]

chelsea absoultely played SHIT...they are lucky...to even get the penalty...if they play like this forget the title...a chance to put a 6 point lead screwed...what a shame!!!{im a chelsea supporter...just in case)

[Michael "staying positive" Hepp]

It is really hard to be positive right now. Maybe it was a penalty maybe not, but there was a blatant handball in the box in the first half that wasn't called so it was fair I thought. West Ham's strategy seemed to be go right up the middle of Chelsea's defense. It seemed on each attack that they had 3-4 guys just bunched up in the middle of the pitch. I think we really missed Essien in this game. Ballack as a defender right now is just not able to help the back 4. When Mikel came on it got a bit better, but still.

I think that we all knew this was going to be a tough year. At the outset we were saying that there were going to be surprises throughout the year. Who would have predicted Fulham to put 3 past Man U and without an answer. Liverpool is totally lost, so it is just tough going in the Premier League now. We need to get through the Cup of Nations with the lead and I think we can win it.