There was only one team that enjoyed top spot on the Premier League ladder from the beginning until the end of this season. But Chelsea’s domestic dominance has come at the price of ‘beautiful’ football and did not translate outside of England.
Outside90 Senior Editor Hugh Schuitemaker looks at the positives and negatives from Chelsea’s double-trophy winning campaign, and what it revealed about the Premier League as a whole.
Consistency is key
The Blues ended the 2014/15 campaign with a total of 87 points, five more than what earned a third place finish the previous time around and crossing the line with a sizeable eight point gap to second placed Manchester City. When attempting to challenge for England’s highest crown, it is now almost necessary to be on-point every week and disappointing results for fellow contenders, such as Burnley’s 1-0 win over the now former-champions, went a long way in Chelsea crossing the line so far ahead of the pack.
Spearheading the West Londoners’ run to the top was the recruitment since that third place finish. While the majority of this season’s big name signings struggled with poor form or injuries, the names that Jose Mourinho brought to Stamford Bridge sent tremors throughout the competition. Relishing in infamy, Diego Costa filled the role of a striker which could wreak havoc on the mentality of opposition defenders, utilising his physicality to score 20 goals despite being repeatedly hampered by a hamstring injury. How quickly the pain of a 50+ million flop in Fernando Torres has been forgotten, and the familiar chant of ‘Diego!’ will undoubtedly be interrupting the sleep of many a Premier League defender during the coming off-season nights.
The other high-profile signing, Cesc Fabregas was pinched from under the nose of his former team Arsenal and seemingly every week sent out reminders that he remains one of the best playmakers in the world. In 2013/14 Chelsea were ranked bottom in the Premier League In terms of successful through-passing, a weakness that has been supremely rectified by the Spaniard’s magical touch, both during open play and from set-pieces. An astonishing 23 assists for the season only illustrates this point, and even considering a late season drop-off in form Fabregas was a lynchpin in a stylistic turnaround which saw the ball moved with a fluidity and confidence reminiscent of Arsenal’s ‘Invincibles’.
Fellow holding-midfielder Nemanja Matic also made a return to England for his second stint under Mourinho. The Serbian may not have been the media’s focal point among the Stamford Bridge arrivals, but played as much of a part in the trophy wins as anyone, proving a terror for almost every attacker that tried to get an eye on Thibaut Courtois’ goal.
However, if consistency is the key factor than only one member of the Chelsea team need be mentioned. Playing every single minute of the domestic season, Captain John Terry truly led the club to glory in every sense of the expression. Mentioning many times that he knows his spot in the starting XI is dependent on form, the 34-year-old was the centrepiece in a defensive line that kept 17 clean sheets and also found his name on five scoresheets. Although Chelsea are famous for their one-year contract policy for anyone over 30, it seems safe to say that Terry’s place at the helm is secure for now.
England’s best still no match in Europe
Despite the domestic stranglehold, the Blues only had rare moments where the team looked convincing during their run in the Champions League, exiting in the first knockout round after losing on away goals to Paris Saint-Germain. There were sorry stories for every English team that crossed over to the continent, with Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester City also crashing out after similarly lacklustre outings. But If Chelsea is going to live up to the hype that their fans, and the team’s price tag sets, they must be mounting serious challenges against the other elite clubs of Europe.
Looking at the second-leg of the tie with PSG, even on their home turf easy goals were scored by the likes of David Luiz from set-piece opportunities. Chelsea’s defensive line is built for Premier League football, but stalwarts John Terry, Gary Cahill and even Branislav Ivanovic can evidently be worn down over 90 minutes, which would seemingly make a clash with a Real Madrid or Barcelona a very daunting prospect.
‘Boring boring Chelsea?’
Disappointing defeats to teams lower on the table de-railed Chelsea’s title hopes last season, yet the tactics from ‘the Special One’ would make sure that this time around the points would be gathered in a meticulous fashion that without question at times became difficult to watch. The opening stages of 2014/15 set the pace for any other prospective challenger, culminating in the 22-game unbeaten streak that featured 12 wins and two draws to start the season. Immaculate build-up play up from the outrageously dangerous combination of Eden Hazard, Willian and Oscar would leave opposition defences looking on with no ability to stop the ball hitting the back of the net.
But as the notoriously hectic Christmas period arrived, Mourinho’s focus changed from winning games in style to protecting the lead at the top of the table and keeping key players fit for duties in multiple competitions. The criticism faced was loud and plentiful, adversary’s left exasperated as not even the smallest of cracks would open in the defence. ‘Parking the bus’ would basically become synonymous with any Chelsea game, absorbing large amounts of pressure on their goal, then either seeming to produce a match-winning moment out of thin air (as in the 1-0 victory over Manchester United), or equally content to take it point-by-point as rivals continually slipped-up.
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Title hopefuls need to step up next season
At the core of it, the strategy of grinding it out quite simple, his fear nothing defence evidently able to deal with nearly anything that opposition could throw at them. We have seen what kind of plan Chelsea wants to execute on the field, and boring or not, there is no reason to change that if the team is winning titles.
It was too easy for Mourinho to park the bus at grounds like the Etihad and the Emirates and come away with a draw in the vital fixtures, losing on only two occasions before sealing the title with four weeks to go in the season. Getting the best performances out of his new recruits of any team in the league, the Portuguese manager has put together a formula that was head and shoulders above any opposition.
Chelsea is a team that truly embraces the routine, and if the puzzle remains this difficult to crack we may quickly find that England becomes smothered in blue.
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