As far as English clubs are concerned, in the last two decades, Chelsea have been the most successful among them in European competition.
However, the current season, which saw the sacking of two managers, has gone all wrong for them. The Blues, now owned by Todd Boehly, are currently struggling at the 11th place in the league table and are already knocked out of all the other competitions they were a part of.
Their latest defeat against Real Madrid not only ended their Champions League hopes for this season but for next season too. Looking at the Premier League standings, one can almost call it certain that they won’t be in the UCL next season.
The 2-time Champions League winners started off the season pretty poorly under Thomas Tuchel which led to the German manager parting ways with the club. Graham Potter was brought in from Brighton to manage Chelsea – a move which turned out to be a disaster as the English gaffer was sacked mid-season after continuously struggling to win games in the Premier League.
As a result, former Chelsea boss and club legend Frank Lampard was brought in as a caretaker manager with the hope of boosting the confidence of the players who are mostly strangers to one another. In an attempt to bring Chelsea back to their very best, Lampard bought with him former Blues’ left-back Ashley Cole.
The move was a fair one from the club to bring back club legends who were a menace during their playing days. They were two of Chelsea’s greatest ever and the passion they had for the West London outfit is second to none.
Though yesterday’s 2-0 loss to Real Madrid proves that there is a lot of work to be done at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea showed one of their best games yesterday in a bid to turn the tie around.
Unlike their recent performances, their gameplay was full of intensity, hunger, and quick passing which reminded us of the prime Chelsea displays in Europe.
Now the performance on the pitch has a lot to do with what goes on behind the scenes or at the training sessions. Despite the results not coming, why it is believed that bringing in Frank Lampard and Ashley Cole was the right move by Chelsea, can be very nicely witnessed from this video by BT Sport.
Prior to the game, BT Sport released a video where Ashley Cole could be talking to Marc Cucurella, Wesley Fofana, Trevoh Chalobah, Thiago Silva, and Reece James – the players who were assigned the duty to defend yesterday.
Cole, who was a part of the Londoners’ Champions League winning campaign in 2011/12 could be seen full of passion while giving out his pep talk.
It looks like he was on a mission to make these young players believe in themselves and to bring about a significant boost in their morals which have been hard to find in their dressing room this season.
And believe me or not, this pep talk almost worked for Chelsea. The Pensioners put up a tremendous performance yesterday only to be let down by their poor finishing and a horrible error by the referee. The midfielders and defenders hardly allowed Madrid time on the ball which forced multiple errors from even Luka Modric.
Chelsea could have actually won the game if Eder Militao would have been sent off at the start of the second half for a foul that seemed an obvious yellow. Anyway, you do not always get what you deserve in life and this relatively new Chelsea side can take a lot of pride in this performance.
With club legends and leaders in the dressing room like Ashley Cole and Frank Lampard, who knows what the expectations are to wear the Chelsea shirt and the expectations that come with it, it is only a matter of time till this team finds its feet.