Chelsea legend Frank Lampard’s post-match Arsenal comments are a clear indication of the amount of work that needs to be done at Stamford Bridge ahead of the summer transfer window.
The Blues are seemingly on crutches hobbling toward the end of the 2022/23 season with five games left to end up what’s been an unimaginably torrid campaign, having lost their last four Premier League matches and are currently squatting most uncomfortably in 12th place, level on points with Saturday’s opponents AFC Bournemouth in 13th.
The Stamford Bridge side lost 3-1 to Arsenal on Tuesday night, having scored only scored two goals in all competitions since a 2-2 draw with Chelsea on March 18.
The club’s owners, comprising Clearlake Capital and Todd Boehly, are obviously painfully cognizant that next season needs to be a whole lot better. And with Mauricio Pochettino now poised to become the club’s new manager, replacing interim boss Frank Lampard who was installed as Graham Potter’s replacement last month, there’s every reason for optimism for both club and fans.
Potter was hired in September to replace Thomas Tuchel, whose sacking had caught almost everyone, apart from the owners, by surprise. Not long after, Potter himself was dispensed with after a dismal run. Now everything needs to settle down come the start of next season and Lampard has admitted to being struck by what is going on off-pitch and how it is negatively impacting his players.
Lampard, the iconic standard-bearer in Chelsea’s golden era, has been accustomed to seeing the Stamford Bridge club perform at an appreciatively high level, at the very least. Indeed, after the Arsenal defeat, Lampard was clear when discussing his thoughts on the current situation.
“Chelsea has been a big success for 20 years but at the moment we aren’t in that position,” Lampard told Sky Sports. Indeed, perhaps the most worrying thing Lampard has said about the club since he returned is that, for him, it is ‘clear to see’ why Chelsea are not performing as a functional football club.
“In the time I’ve been here it’s clear to see behind the scenes, on the training ground, the reasons why. If you’re going to be a nice team to play against all the time it doesn’t matter where you go.
“That won’t change overnight but we better get there quickly.”
Those ominous words should now be reverberating loudly like alarm bells in the club’s boardroom to emphasize to the owners just how much work still needs has to be done to get Chelsea back to a level where they can merely be competitive.