Between the Champions League final in May and the first competitive ball being kicked in Belfast against Villarreal, Chelsea was riding a wave.
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What had seemed like a generally unsuccessful season had finished in the most dramatic of ways, with a bunch of doubtful players joining the legends of Munich’s 2012 win to catapult the club back to the top of European football.
This left little time for serious contemplation. Chelsea were European champions, and those on the Fulham Road exuded confidence. Any queries concerning the squad’s overall quality were deemed improper.
Even those who considered themselves experts expected Thomas Tuchel and his team to improve. This was a world-class collection of players that would battle in the Premier League against Manchester City and Liverpool.
You compare how you felt the day after Chelsea’s final game of the 2020/21 season to how you felt the Monday after the end of the 2021/22 season. It doesn’t get much clearer than this.
It seems naïve not to highlight Roman Abramovich’s sale to Todd Boehly’s company, as well as the fines and months of uncertainty. That is the incident that will permanently eclipse everything else that has transpired this season.
Even in a year where Chelsea played 63 games, reaching both domestic cup finals and winning the World Cup, the off-field happenings will dominate the post-mortem. That is how the history books will recall this season.
On a final day when the drama happening elsewhere filtered into Stamford Bridge, the game against an already relegated Watford was played with the smallest of stakes. Taking fans’ attention away from the game in front of them and onto the happenings in Manchester.
Tuchel’s Champions League excellence was expected to rapidly convert into enormous Premier League improvement by Chelsea supporters and maybe the leadership. Although the basic stats show Chelsea scoring their most points since their previous title triumph under Antonio Conte five years ago, the fact that the distance to the eventual winners remains the same at 19 points tells its own tale.
The triumph in Porto gave many the impression that Abramovich’s merciless streak had done the work once more, and the Blues would soon be back on track. However, the league environment has changed dramatically since Conte took Chelsea from seventh to first in under a year in 2017.
Individual skill might still excel over long-term system construction back then, when the league was more chaotic. Chelsea’s previous championship came in Pep Guardiola’s and Jurgen Klopp’s first full seasons in the Premier League. Chelsea has finished below both coaches in the five seasons since.
It is not illuminating to disparage the disparities in coaching, structure, and recruiting between Chelsea and the top two. It is, however, one that can no longer be concealed by great cup victories. Those who have had happy endings to unsuccessful league seasons.
An ordinary film may be improved by a strong third act, which Chelsea’s 2020/21 story benefited significantly from as fans soon forgot about Tuchel’s side’s disastrous conclusion to the season, which saw them almost lose their spot in the top four.
Although obscured by the ownership controversy, the closing weeks of the season have brought the present squad’s shortcomings into sharper perspective, and harsher truths have been endorsed by more minds. Not only does a change of ownership signal the end of the Roman Abramovich era. It also happens to coincide with a squad overhaul that has been needed for some years.
Chelsea’s short-term remedies can no longer be relied on to avoid harsher decisions and more refined recruiting, as the Todd Boehly era will hopefully remedy.
