Oh good, we are doing this again.
For the last few years Stamford Bridge has gradually become anything other than a fortress and unfortunately yesterday’s loss to a now ninth place Aston Villa exemplified that.
I can honestly say that heading into yesterday’s game I really had thought in mind of how the game would play out. We hadn’t played for a couple of weeks and the last time we took to the Stamford Bridge pitch we witnessed a pretty depressing 2-2 draw with Everton.
I was acutely aware of the danger Aston Villa could pose us if we weren’t careful. I’ve always been a big fan of Unai Emery as a manager. Part of this stems from wanting to wind up Arsenal fans from his difficult year and a bit there, but he also does a very good job more often than not wherever he goes. Indeed, only Arsenal and Manchester City have earned more points than Emery since he took over Villa back in October and the team in claret and blue now find themselves dreaming of possible European away days next season.
I kept up with my tradition of walking to the ground and why not when it’s getting a bit warmer. Once again, I found myself seriously overestimating the temperature and a t-shirt and shirt combination was simply not enough. My walk home in the early hours of Sunday morning was uncomfortable at best.
I can’t speak highly enough of the Saturday 5:30 kick off time. Desperate to curb my weekend drinking, we’ve taken to getting to the pub for a couple of hours before the game. Unfortunately, with the way we’re playing currently you are forced to drink to forget as soon as the full-time whistle goes. There were shouts around the table of “we simply have to win” and “it’s Villa” but I knew not to underestimate them. For a little while in the league now we don’t look like we care whatsoever. I do understand it as we really don’t have a huge amount to play for in the sense we won’t get top four but equally we could easily find a way into the Europa or Conference League.
The way we played summarised this perfectly. Whilst we created a fair few chances there was a real lack of urgency to the performance. The line up didn’t exactly inspire me either. But, as I’ve pointed out several times, the sheer size of our squad makes it almost unmanageable. Ben Chilwell is always going to play in that left wing back position when fit for example, so that leaves us with 3 players fighting for the left centre back role in the team and Potter will naturally have a hard time keeping all happy.
I really can’t even be bothered to talk about the game itself because that would mean I’d have to relive what was an incredibly turgid afternoon. Dad and I had several differences of opinion throughout the game and this largely revolved around who was to blame for the performance out of the players and manager. I thought the refereeing was pretty shambolic as usual with obvious decisions being given the wrong way. All in all, the highlight of the game was a delightful Chicken Balti pie which is fast becoming a quite regular feature of my matchday ritual. Indeed, this marks the fourth matchday in a row that I’ve consumed said pie either before or during the match.
At this point, I’d honestly just create an entirely new governing body for referee’s in this country because the standards have never been lower. Even worse, it’s turned into a sort of mates club where it seems they can do no wrong in each others eyes. It’s completely not fit for purpose.
Misery at the game was compounded further when my half-time Guinness was substituted for a Singha. I think you’ll be hard pushed to find a worse beer at Premier League ground and one of my biggest grievances with the new ownership is that they’re yet to change this.
Despite us looking better a few weeks back, with things really peaking in our games against Dortmund and Leicester, the doubts are creeping back around Stamford Bridge quite ominously. Chants of “you don’t know what you’re doing” and “you’re getting sacked in the morning” could be heard a few times. I’ll never personally actively chant against the team or manager, but this will not have gone unnoticed to Todd Boehly.
Post-match, there was only one thing left to do and that was to get absolutely obliterated and try to forget the horrors of what we had just watched. Of the seven people sitting around the table I would say I was probably Graham Potter’s biggest defender with the majority of the group wanting him gone by this morning. I found myself defending him as I did feel we were the better team on the pitch yesterday, we just couldn’t put the ball in the back of the net. With just five shots and only two of them on target, Aston Villa would’ve lost to Chelsea more often than not but yesterday wasn’t that day and that simply is just football.
The pub afterwards was once again the highlight of the day in all honesty and it is comforting to know that however bad we are, we can always have a laugh and joke about it in the pub as friends afterwards.
I’m really not sure what to think at this point. It feels like each week the narrative and thoughts around Graham Potter changes slightly. I find it very hard to blame him for parts of the game yesterday. It wasn’t Graham Potter who played Ollie Watkins through on goal with a terrible headed back pass and it wasn’t Graham Potter who missed multiple easy chances in front of goal. But, it was Graham Potter who selected the same players who have let him down multiple times over the past few months and ultimately only Graham Potter is responsible for that.
Aside from a few manic minutes after matches, I’ve never called for a manager to be sacked. Once again however, I find his current position to be almost untenable. If we play poorly once and there’s individual errors across the pitch, then fair play that’s probably the players who are going to be at fault. However, when this happens again and again and again, then you really do have to start looking upstairs because that’s more than likely going to be the manager,
I’m pretty thankful that I’m unable to attend our midweek clash against Liverpool. I have no doubt that the Stamford Bridge faithful will be up for the occasion and I only hope the players are too. Yesterday we saw City demolish Liverpool after an early scare and so this really will be a case of a stoppable force meeting a very moveable object.
Our record against the top 10 speaks for itself this season. With just one win in 13 games this will undoubtedly be a tough match and our home games against the traditional top six this season have been painful at best. If we are going to lose or draw, my only request is that we don’t do so in the sixth, seventh or even eighth minute of added time. That really has got to stop.
Realistically, if we do get humiliated by this Liverpool team then there is no doubt in my mind that Potter is out of the club come Wednesday morning… if he isn’t already. (I do think he has one more game left in him)
Anyway, I do now have an 11 day break from watching Chelsea which I’m quite happy about. I’ll be back with a write up of Real Madrid away on the 13th.
The Shed Diaries 