Chelsea are one of the many English clubs who are currently going through a period of transition and while sides like Tottenham have found it difficult to maintain that high level of football on a consistent basis, Chelsea’s attacking wealth means that they too must begin to look back on their season with pride.
Although the Blues started the season on fire under the managership of Maurizio Sarri, as time wore on, the intensity of the Blues football dropped too. While they were able to blow teams away from within the opening 10 minutes of fixtures in August and even September, after that period, they began to struggle.
As usual, Chelsea’s biggest grey-area was the striker’s role of course. Alvaro Morata was brought in to solve this issue and if anything, he made it a lot worse. More recently though, since the arrival of Gonzalo Higuain, the Blues have looked a shot sharper going forward and some of his goals have been vital as Chelsea hunt for Europa League glory this season.
Here are the 3 moments that secured 3rd place for Chelsea:
The high-profile fixture between Pep Guardiola’s tactically sound Manchester City side and the Blues resulted in a fairly surprising result that most people didn’t expect. Not only did Chelsea win, they achieved the almost unthinkable feat of keeping the forwards from the Etihad Stadium at bay.
Goals from David Luiz and World Cup winner N’Golo Kante were enough to see a 2-0 victory on the night. While they gladly took the 3 points, it was a match which proved a couple of things to the rest of the league – that Manchester City weren’t unbeatable and that Chelsea were a force to be reckoned with.
In the reverse fixture of what was probably their worst game of the season, they were dealt an absolute tactical masterclass by Pep Guardiola who set up his City side in such an attacking manner that the Chelsea defence didn’t know what hit them.
A brace for Raheem Sterling and a hat-trick for Sergio Aguero topped off an emphatic 6-0 victory at the Etihad Stadium. This result came as a real wake up call to everyone involved at the football club. The realisation that they still have a long way to go before they can compete with City has certainly had a positive effect on the players.
Chelsea’s latest European fixture was a spectacular win against high-flying Bundesliga outfit Eintracht Frankfurt who boast players like Sebastian Haller and Luka Jovic. Although they were trumped by the Germans for a majority of the tie, they showed great resilience in the second half to keep the tie at 1-1.
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The game went to penalties and it was the Belgian skipper Eden Hazard who stepped up to score what could well have been his final goal at Stamford Bridge. Chelsea have now set up a Europa League final tie against Arsenal in Baku in the coming weeks and have the opportunity to give Maurizio Sarri what would be his first ever professional trophy.