Chelsea’s season run in looked very different to entire campaign – Talk Chelsea

Yesterday saw the end of the 2023/24 season in the Premier League, and the time has now come to start reflecting on everything that has happened, and there has been a lot.

It’s been a real emotional rollercoaster this season. I think back to moments during the season, just how gloomy and toxic it was at times. I remember jumping on here after a match and just reading literally 100s of comments sometimes with raw anger and emotions at the situations. I truly remember how bad it got this season at times. I felt it all from many of you in this community, a community I actually think is far more measured than many other Chelsea fan communities around. We have an amazing mixture of fans here, whether it’s match-going, UK-based, abroad-based, fans who can’t get to games, and everything in between. The one thing we all have in common is our devotion and passion to our football club, a club we all bleed blue for.

Emotions, over-reactions, under-reactions, it all happens, and it’s all natural. We have all been at rock bottom at times supporting Chelsea this season, and the one thing I heard and read a lot was the disconnection they have felt this season. It’s been impossible to ignore. I felt it too at times.

But what a difference winning games make, right? The last five games has seen a real turn in emotions and feelings amongst the fan base. Things have been much better with the better performances and results. I guess that is just football, right? Opinions can change fast, VERY fast.

Chelsea had a strong end to the season for sure, and there is no doubt in my mind that it HAS been an achievement to finish 6th and get European football back at the club. But it’s only an achievement due to how bad things did get this season. If you remember all the doom and gloom, the unprecedented injury problems, the youngest squad in the league, and all the other circumstances that have played a part, I think you simply have to look at finishing 6th to be an achievement for Pochettino and the players.

However, the season is not played out over five games, unfortunately, nor is it played out from January. If it was, we would have finished 4th, which is what the club target was that was set for Pochettino before the start of the season, a target he has not reached.

We have scored goals and in fact, Chelsea have scored 77 goals this season, which is our third-most across a single campaign in the competition. Only bettered in 2009-10 (103) and 2016-17 (85) – which were both title-winning seasons.

Again, that is some achievement. But at the other end, it’s not been so good and in fact, it’s been bad.

Chelsea’s 63 goals conceded this season is the most in the club’s Premier League history and the most they have conceded for over 30 years. This has been the biggest problem and is 16 more goals than we conceded last season.

We have fixed up our attacking issues from last season, and we have had a lot more finesse in front of goal and more creativity. But defensively we have often been a shambles.

Issues that would effect that was not being able to pick a regular back four due to injuries. But unfortunately the coach must do better to train a better defence. Defending is a team responsibility, not just the back four. Pochettino’s side plays far too open and allows real vulnerability on the counter attack.

I’m going to hone in on individual players later this week and we will be rating them all together. But Cole Palmer’s goal contributions have been insane this season and have been a massive reason for our attacking improvements. But also, Pochettino’s setup and the way he sets up with numbers and third man runs in attack, has also helped us be devastating on the counter.

Again, we will hone in on Pochettino individually in another article, but his overall tactics have often just not been good enough (been so much better in the last 5 or 6 matches). He has also still failed to create a rapport and connection with the overall fan base. But again, we will hone in on Pochettino and the players individually in another article later this week.

Let’s get to the games now, and there’s been some horrific performances and results, and there has also been some very good ones. It’s been hugely inconsistent, with one cup final and one cup semi final made, and some very good results to get there and throughout the season.

We had a decent pre-season and there was some real promise with Pochettino’s setup then, with it looking a lot more like how he ended this season. Christopher Nkunku looked key to it, and then of course got his frustrating injury.

Chelsea went unbeaten in five pre-season games, winning against Wrexham, Brighton, and Fulham along the way.

But as soon as the season began, the cracks showed right away and we all feared the worst after defeats against West Ham, Nottingham Forest, and Aston Villa really set the tone for a long and gruelling season ahead.

After that came a defeat by Brentford, but we also beat Tottenham 4-1, and went toe-to-toe against Manchester City drawing 4-4. We actually deserved to win that game and many see it as our best performance of the season.

It should have been a turning point, but then came a 4-1 thrashing from Newcastle, and a defeat to Manchester United in December, and the tone dropped down again and the gloom came back. There were so many of these one step forward and two step back moments this season, and they continued throughout the season.

Everton also beat us 2-0 during that period, and Wolves beat us 2-1.

After that we enjoyed good runs in the FA Cup and League Cup to help take our minds off the league form. But things in the league continued to stutter. We conceded 8 goals in two games losing 4-0 against Liverpool and 4-2 against Wolves, our second defeat of the season to them.

But then we beat Aston Villa in the cup, Crystal Palace away from home, and once again went toe-to-toe with the champions Manchester City, drawing 1-1. This was another game where we could have easily taken all three points and really stood up to be counted. It left us all saying ‘why on earth can’t we play like this every game?’

Then we narrowly lost out to Liverpool 1-0 in the League Cup final, and game that was there for the taking with a depleted Liverpool side filled with academy players. Losing this was poor for me, and we should have been celebrating a trophy lift too this season.

We then went on an 8 game unbeaten run, with a 6-0 drumming of Everton, a win against Newcastle, and a 4-3 win against Manchester United which showed great team spirit once again, something we had seen only in isolation this season until the season run in really.

There was a frustrating 2-2 draw against Sheffield United in this run though, that saw us throw away all three points by conceding an equaliser deep into stoppage time.

We then lost narrowly to Manchester City in the FA Cup semi final, another game against the champions that we did well in and deserved more from. This was the third time we faced City this season and deserved more.

Then there was another low point of the season, and as well as throughout the season, this was another point where the majority of the fan base was calling for Pochettino to be sacked. I did polls on this all season and it was averaging 80% of people wanting Pochettino sacked at this point as well as throughout the season before that point. But I am of course talking about the 5-0 thrashing from Arsenal in April.

However, after that things changed, and Chelsea then went on to finish the season strong, going six games unbeaten, enjoying wins against West Ham, Tottenham, Nottingham Forest, Brighton, and then of course Bournemouth on Sunday to seal our 6th placed finish. It was a great end to a season that has been incredibly up and down.

The Daily Mail’s Kieran Gill reported yesterday that a table for first halves would place Chelsea in the Premier League’s top four this season. For second halves, they are closer to the relegation zone.

And this just about sums up our season. A game of two halves, first halves and second halves of matches, and the overall season.

We started slow and badly, but we picked things up at the end of the season. It’s been mixed emotions throughout, and it’s been a story of what ifs too. We have narrowly lost games we should have won, and we have won games we deserved to lose or draw.

The players have shown real fight at times this season, and they have shown a real togetherness, Pochettino has certainly helped build that rapport.

Other times they have not been fit to wear the shirt and have looked unbothered. But thankfully that looks to be behind the players now and they have been out there fighting for the badge, and many of you have noticed that. I’ve seen comments this past week such as ‘this is such a likeable group of players’ – and I am really starting to feel that now too.

The squad has some question marks for me still, and there are players in it who I firmly believe will not make it here. We also need some more key additions. But there has been some top signings, and players like Nicolas Jackson and Moises Caicedo have really proven critics wrong. Others like Cole Palmer and Malo Gusto have proven to be very good and very smart signings. There has been a lot of great things done with our squad build, and we know it needed gutting out.

I believe we have been naive by not adding more quality experience and I truly hope that is addressed in the summer.

Joe Cole said this week: “What is very important is the recruitment in the summer. You need experience, I wouldn’t say anywhere in particular. I don’t think the club need to add any more young players, they need experience. Very similar to what Bayer Leverkusen have done. They brought in Jonas Hofmann and another senior player (Granit Xhaka), you can’t put a value on that.

“If I was advising the club, it would be two or three players in. Experienced players who know how to win games, good characters, set the tone in the dressing room.”

I think I’d maybe listen to a man who was a very clever player himself back in the day, because he’s spot on there.

Overall I cannot forget the glum moments this season and the poor results and performances. But at the same time, I can acknowledge the issues we have faced and the improvements we have seen in this season run in, and I can also note that we have also had some decent performances and results too this season.

For Chelsea as a club, it’s not been good enough. For the owners, they wanted Champions League qualification, so targets have not been hit. But for the circumstances and the fact we had spent a large portion of the season outside the top ten, this is an achievement to finish in 6th place.

I certainly wouldn’t say I have enjoyed this season and at times, far from it. It’s been painful and punishing. But I can see the signs and I maintain belief in this ownership and the ambitions they have.

Time to improve the squad again, make some big decisions, and push on into next season much stronger!