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Chelsea’s recovery in the second half of the season bodes well for Pochettino

Chelsea’s recovery in the second half of the season bodes well for Pochettino

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In the aftermath of Chelsea’s 2-1 win at Brighton last night, one name which had been trending on social media following a lot of their matches this season was largely notable by his absence. Throughout this season, the wilder corners of Football Twitter have been continuing that two-decade long tradition of getting on the manager’s back from the very moment that everything at Stamford Bridge wasn’t going absolutely perfectly.

By Ian King

If anything, it’s been a little surprising the extent to which Chelsea haven’t been all over the back pages after another faltering season. While every single Manchester United stutter has been accompanied by a flurry of speculation over what tragedy will befall the club next, it has felt at points as though Mauricio Pochettino has been let off the hook a little. Was this just a reflection of the huge pulling power of Manchester United? Or was it a tacit admission that the problems at Stamford Bridge were somewhat greater than the manager? 

The Brighton win was Chelsea’s fourth in a row, their best run of the season. They’re now in sixth place in the table with a game to play, and finishing in that position would mean a return to European football next season in either the Europa League or Conference League, depending on whether Manchester City or Manchester United win the FA Cup Final. Things could yet get even better than that, too. On Sunday afternoon, should they beat Bournemouth at Stamford Bridge and Spurs lose at the already-relegated Sheffield United, they could even still reach fifth place and a guaranteed Europa League place. 

This would have been close to unimaginable for much of this season. Chelsea have been inconsistent, defensively leaky – the 62 Premier League goals they’ve conceded is the most in the Premier League’s top eight – and they’ve spent thirteen weeks in the bottom half of the table. But the improvement has been striking, and it didn’t just start with their four most recent wins. 

By the end of the first week in February, that Pochettino wouldn’t last the season felt as inevitable as it had since more or less the first game of their season. Three straight wins in January and booking a place in the EFL Cup final seemed to have relieved the pressure a little, but that returned in spades following two successive matches against Liverpool and Wolves in which they conceded eight goals. 

But in the 19 games played since then, the team has finally started to click into the sort of form that we might have expected from the start of the season, considering the amount of money that had been spent on it. They’ve only lost three of those 19, and those defeats came after extra-time to Liverpool in the EFL Cup final, to Manchester City in the semi-final of the FA Cup, and to Arsenal in the League. There may have been a couple too many draws in there – Chelsea have continued their habit of conceding two goals in too many matches as well – but this has been a successful second half to the season at Stamford Bridge. 

Much of this has been down to the imperious form of Cole Palmer, who has scored 22 of their 72 Premier League goals and contributed ten assists. Of course, the uncharitable explanation for all of this has been that Palmer has been ‘digging Poch out’ of holes into which the manager had put his team, but that, if anything, is more a reflection of the mood of a fanbase that had become heartily fed up with losing as many matches as they won. The alternative perspective is that Pochettino has been making the best use of Palmer within a system that did take a long time to gel.

If there’s one group of people that have fallen relatively silent over the last few weeks, it’s been the #pochout advocates. There will always be some holdouts who’ve dug themselves into a position to the extent that they’ve made it part of their personality and will continue to see only the ill in anything he does, while the likelihood of many social media blowhards ever stepping up and admitting that they got this wrong seems as vanishingly light as ever. 

Pochettino still has challenges ahead. The recklessness of Chelsea’s transfer policy when first purchased by Clearlake remains as clear as ever, and how the club will be able to dig itself out of the PSR/FFP hole into which they’ve dug themselves remains to be seen. It is particularly notable that the upswing in the team’s fortunes on the pitch has coincided with the movement of Todd Boehly away from being a centre of attention. Boehly is still there – he’s recently been at the Qatar Economic Forum, defending the club’s scattergun transfer policy – but he is at least half out of the limelight, which seems to be suiting the club much better. 

Mauricio Pochettino will almost certainly still be the Chelsea manager come the start of next season, but there remains a lot of work to be done. Defensively, Chelsea remain profligate. Even this run of three defeats in 19 games has only yielded three clean sheets. But there are, at least, signs that the tide is turning at Stamford Bridge after a couple of years of relative chaos. As Brighton slide into a decline which was probably inevitable, given the repeated raids on both their playing and coaching staff, at least the main beneficiaries of those raids are doing just fine. Make of that what you will. 

(Images from IMAGO)

You can follow every Premier League game with FotMob — featuring deep stats coverage, xG, and player ratings. Download the free app here.

Chelsea’s recovery in the second half of the season bodes well for Pochettino

In the aftermath of Chelsea’s 2-1 win at Brighton last night, one name which had been trending on social media following a lot of their matches this season was largely notable by his absence. Throughout this season, the wilder corners of Football Twitter have been continuing that two-decade long tradition of getting on the manager’s back from the very moment that everything at Stamford Bridge wasn’t going absolutely perfectly.

By Ian King

If anything, it’s been a little surprising the extent to which Chelsea haven’t been all over the back pages after another faltering season. While every single Manchester United stutter has been accompanied by a flurry of speculation over what tragedy will befall the club next, it has felt at points as though Mauricio Pochettino has been let off the hook a little. Was this just a reflection of the huge pulling power of Manchester United? Or was it a tacit admission that the problems at Stamford Bridge were somewhat greater than the manager? 

The Brighton win was Chelsea’s fourth in a row, their best run of the season. They’re now in sixth place in the table with a game to play, and finishing in that position would mean a return to European football next season in either the Europa League or Conference League, depending on whether Manchester City or Manchester United win the FA Cup Final. Things could yet get even better than that, too. On Sunday afternoon, should they beat Bournemouth at Stamford Bridge and Spurs lose at the already-relegated Sheffield United, they could even still reach fifth place and a guaranteed Europa League place. 

This would have been close to unimaginable for much of this season. Chelsea have been inconsistent, defensively leaky – the 62 Premier League goals they’ve conceded is the most in the Premier League’s top eight – and they’ve spent thirteen weeks in the bottom half of the table. But the improvement has been striking, and it didn’t just start with their four most recent wins. 

By the end of the first week in February, that Pochettino wouldn’t last the season felt as inevitable as it had since more or less the first game of their season. Three straight wins in January and booking a place in the EFL Cup final seemed to have relieved the pressure a little, but that returned in spades following two successive matches against Liverpool and Wolves in which they conceded eight goals. 

But in the 19 games played since then, the team has finally started to click into the sort of form that we might have expected from the start of the season, considering the amount of money that had been spent on it. They’ve only lost three of those 19, and those defeats came after extra-time to Liverpool in the EFL Cup final, to Manchester City in the semi-final of the FA Cup, and to Arsenal in the League. There may have been a couple too many draws in there – Chelsea have continued their habit of conceding two goals in too many matches as well – but this has been a successful second half to the season at Stamford Bridge. 

Much of this has been down to the imperious form of Cole Palmer, who has scored 22 of their 72 Premier League goals and contributed ten assists. Of course, the uncharitable explanation for all of this has been that Palmer has been ‘digging Poch out’ of holes into which the manager had put his team, but that, if anything, is more a reflection of the mood of a fanbase that had become heartily fed up with losing as many matches as they won. The alternative perspective is that Pochettino has been making the best use of Palmer within a system that did take a long time to gel.

If there’s one group of people that have fallen relatively silent over the last few weeks, it’s been the #pochout advocates. There will always be some holdouts who’ve dug themselves into a position to the extent that they’ve made it part of their personality and will continue to see only the ill in anything he does, while the likelihood of many social media blowhards ever stepping up and admitting that they got this wrong seems as vanishingly light as ever. 

Pochettino still has challenges ahead. The recklessness of Chelsea’s transfer policy when first purchased by Clearlake remains as clear as ever, and how the club will be able to dig itself out of the PSR/FFP hole into which they’ve dug themselves remains to be seen. It is particularly notable that the upswing in the team’s fortunes on the pitch has coincided with the movement of Todd Boehly away from being a centre of attention. Boehly is still there – he’s recently been at the Qatar Economic Forum, defending the club’s scattergun transfer policy – but he is at least half out of the limelight, which seems to be suiting the club much better. 

Mauricio Pochettino will almost certainly still be the Chelsea manager come the start of next season, but there remains a lot of work to be done. Defensively, Chelsea remain profligate. Even this run of three defeats in 19 games has only yielded three clean sheets. But there are, at least, signs that the tide is turning at Stamford Bridge after a couple of years of relative chaos. As Brighton slide into a decline which was probably inevitable, given the repeated raids on both their playing and coaching staff, at least the main beneficiaries of those raids are doing just fine. Make of that what you will. 

(Images from IMAGO)

You can follow every Premier League game with FotMob — featuring deep stats coverage, xG, and player ratings. Download the free app here.